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William C. Rhoden wrote in the NYT that the Baseball Hall of Fame is being hijacked. Marc Ecko has no right to deface the historic home run ball because it’s messing with history and that the HOF has no principles in taking the ball.
Mr. Rhoden neglected to state that the website had taken in 10 million votes, with 47% of them voting in favor of the asterisk. Instead, he wrote that Ecko cast 3 votes himself, as if that skewed the voting.
Ecko won the ball in an auction with a winning bid of $752,467 – “more…than many families make in a lifetime,” Rhoden states. That true, and it’s much more than Barry Bonds must have spent on the steroids to hijack the record from Hank Aaron.
What matters here is how the fans feel. It’s their Hall of Fame. The HOF is for the public. Not asterisking the ball would show a lack of integrity around the record. The HOF can arrange the ball so that the asterisk does not show.
Barry Bonds invented the asterisk – not a cynical fan or the press. Bonds will be lucky to have his spot in the HOF. Everything associated with Bonds should have an Asterisk. He should wear it like a Scarlet Letter A.