#715 Officially For Sale

Ok, that number may only mean something to hardcore sports fans like myself. When San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run recently, it pushed him past Babe Ruth into second place on the all-time HR list. Maybe you've heard about Andrew Morbitzer, the fan who caught the memorable ball. Did he beat back scores of other fans in the bleachers to make the catch? Or maybe make a spectacular grab while leaning over a railing? No - he was actually in a beer line when the ball found its way over to him (there's a funny video re-enactment of it on Delyn Simons' last blog post about the ball).

Acquisition method aside, the ball is now up for sale on eBay. A press conference was held yesterday at Mickey Mantle's Restaurant in New York (great ribs there, by the way), and Dean Jutilla, part of our PR team, sent in the following report. The picture is of Morbitzer during the conference, and that's Jed Clevenger, our Category Manager for Sports & Entertainment Memorabilia, standing off to the left.

"The long-awaited sale of Barry Bonds' 715th home run is now live on eBay, and there was a big press conference here at Mickey Mantle's Restaurant and Sports Bar in New York City yesterday. Lots of local and national media in attendance to interview the ball owner/seller Andrew Morbitzer. There's a ton of chatter about how much the ball will go for - some say $200,000, others say $500,000. Bonds' 73rd home run ball from 2001 - the one that broke baseball's single-season HR mark - went for $450,000 in a floor auction at Leland Auctions. But the Morbitzers (Andrew and his wife Megan) decided to put it up on eBay with a starting price of $10,000 and plan to give 10% of the sale proceeds to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America."