Ethics Newsline®

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.
The ball that Barry Bonds slammed out of the park and into the record books is headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame — but not before being branded with an asterisk.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that the ball, a symbol of controversy because Bonds has been plagued by accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs to propel himself to the position of home-run king, will be a visual reference to many fans’ assertion that the record books should contain a footnote explaining the extenuating circumstances.

New York fashion designer Marc Ecko purchased the ball for $750,000 from the fan who caught it, then set up a website for fans to vote on its fate. The choices were to send it to the Hall of Fame as is, send it to the Hall of Fame with an asterisk, or blast it into space.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig declined to comment on the ultimate decision to brand the ball, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Officials at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, told the Daily Star newspaper in nearby Oneonta that the museum was ambivalent about the asterisk.

“As an American history museum, this is an integral part of baseball history,” Hall of Fame vice president for communications and education Jeff Idelson told the Star. “It’s equivalent to landing a one-of-a-kind painting. It’s unfortunate it’s marked, but on the same token, we understand why it is and we’ll have to explain the reason to every visitor that comes through…. We were hopeful the ball would come in unmarked. We don’t believe in the decimation of artifacts. In this case we had to look beyond that a little bit because of the historical perspective.”