Forget No. 700. It’s No. 47,042 – the online auction number –
that will be remembered.
Hollister – Forget No. 700. It’s No. 47,042 – the online auction number – that will be remembered.
After 10 days of intense bidding at overstock.com, Barry Bonds’ historic 700th home run baseball received a top bid of $804,129 when the auction closed Wednesday. The online event drew over 240 bids according to the Web site.
Hollister man Tim Murphy thinks that money is rightfully his because, he said, he had the ball before losing it in a melee in the stands at SBC Park in San Francisco on Sept. 17. He still has a lawsuit pending for the proceeds from the sale.
“I thought it would go a little higher – maybe over a million,” said Murphy, who has lived in Hollister about eight years. “My lawyers are doing all the work behind the scenes. They just told me to sit tight. I’ve been really inundated with work because this is the busy time of the year. It’s been nice to be able to relax and get back to my family and my normal routine.”
His lawyers failed earlier to get a court-ordered injunction stopping the ball from being sold. After a San Francisco judge denied the effort, Steve Williams, who came up with the ball after the scuffle, listed it for sale online with a starting bid of $1. After the first day of bidding, the top bid was more than $100,000. And it quickly jumped from there.
“We had people estimating the value at all different prices,” said Holly MacDonald-Korth, the Vice President of Auctions at overstock.com.
Reached by phone Wednesday after the winning bid was announced, Williams said he’ll quit his job as a broker’s assistant in San Mateo but has no idea yet what he’ll do with the money.
Williams said he plans to donate part of the money to two charities: Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco.
But Murphy’s attorney, Joe Scanlan, said it wouldn’t be wise to start dispersing the money just yet.
“We would hope that he wouldn’t be making gifts or purchases until the matter is resolved,” Scanlan said. “It has not one bit of effect on our suit.”
A response from the original lawsuit is due by the end of the week.
“Mr. Williams said it was OK for him to sell the ball, but that is not exactly what the judge said. He said he wouldn’t stop him from selling the ball,” Scanlan said. “We now know how much the ball brought, and presumably where the money will be.”
Since the overstock.com auctions site was launched on Sept. 27, the auction for the ball attracted the most visitors and raised the most money, MacDonald-Korth said. Overstock receives 1 percent of the sale price.
“All we did was put the banner up on the home page, and everything else pretty much took care of itself,” MacDonald-Korth said. “We put out press releases, and it spiraled. We didn’t even have to spend much on marketing.”
Originally, the winning bid was more than $820,000. But after an internal investigation, Overstock discarded the top bids as pranks, leaving the person who used the screen name “Bomasterj” the winner. At press time, Overstock was not releasing the winner’s name because of privacy issues.
“The bids are legally binding contracts,” MacDonald-Korth said. “But we didn’t want to make a big deal over it because it was such a high profile bid. We didn’t want anyone to lose their homes over it.”
One of the bidders for the ball was “mcfarlane39,” whose top bid was $780,479. In 1999, Todd McFarlane, a comic book writer, paid $3.2 million for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball, a year after the St. Louis Cardinal slugger broke Roger Maris’ 37-year-old record of 61 home runs in a season. No connection has been established between the bidder and McFarlane.
In October 2001, Bonds’ record-setting 73rd homer of the season also sparked litigation that ended when a judge ordered two men who claimed ownership to split the $450,000 the ball fetched. That ball may have gotten more, but it didn’t get sold until a year after the home run because a judge ordered it to remain under lock and key until the litigation ended.
Doug Allen, president of Mastronet.com, an online sports auction site, had valued Bonds’ 700th home run ball in the $100,000 range, saying baseballs that break Ruth’s and Aaron’s records will be more valuable.
“It’s an incredible collectible, but that’s even more of an incredible price,” Allen said.
Bonds became the first member of the 700-homer club in 31 years, joining Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. He now has 703 career home runs, trailing only Ruth (714) and Aaron (755).
“We’re not counting our chickens before they are hatched,” said Murphy’s wife Bobbi, about what they intend to do if they are awarded the money, but she also said it could help with their three kids’ education.
“I am pleasantly happy with the price of the ball,” Murphy said. “I think it is easily worth that much. I hope whoever buys the ball is happy with it.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Nathan Mixter is the Sports Editor for the Hollister Free Lance. He can be reached at [email protected] or at 637-5566 ext. 334.
