Imagine being Joe Figone, who was sitting in his boat in McCovey Cove when his ears perked up to the sound of a loud crack of the bat and a crowd erupting.
Had you been approached by representatives of the Giants and been offered a package of, say, two signed Barry Bonds jerseys, season tickets for the next two years, a signed glove from Jeff Kent and around $60,000, would you have taken it? Oh wait, that's a different story.
What actually happened is that Figone held on to the ball for two decades in a safe deposit box, but the time has finally come that he's decided to consign the ball to auction... and make a pretty penny in the process. As one of the headliners of SCP Auctions' Fall Premier Catalog, Figone's prized catch — along with Bonds' first McCovey Cove splashdown, which he also was lucky enough to snag — are expected to pull in quite a bit of cash.
How much? Around $250,000, says the presale estimate. It's not quite as much as some of Bonds' other notable home run balls — for instance, his record-756th ball sold for three times as much in 2007 — but it sure ain't nothing. It also might provide Tom Brady fans with some context of just how valuable that 600th TD the other night will be... but, again, that's a different story. Bidding closes on Saturday, with the current bid well below the estimate.
What's crazy is that it probably could have been worth a whole lot more back in the season when the home run occurred, so long as you use the logic of Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball. Four months after Big Mac crushed No. 70 of his 1998 season, Todd McFarlane paid a casual $3 million to get his hands on the piece of baseball history. Now, that ball's worth somewhere around $250K or $300K, and the fact that McGwire was joined by Bonds in the 70-HR club probably helped to make that possible.
The crown jewel of the Fall Premier Auction, as is the case with many baseball memorabilia events, is a T206 Honus Wagner card, with an estimated $2 million value.
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