"Bestow it, brand it, or banish it" Vote on Bonds 756 home run ball's fate

The buyer of the Bonds' 756 home run ball wants to settle thing all democratically.  Go to this web site to vote on bestowing (he could have said 'bequeath') the ball to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, branding the poor leather cover with an asterisk, or banishing the unfortunate sphere to outer space somewhere.

This election may be the finest hour of the electronic Internet democracy; or this could the beginning of the death knell for the poor Rawlings orb that Bonds so unceremoniously bashed into the left field stands at Pac Bell.

The San Francisco Chronicle carries the story on Mark Echo's democratic solution to the Bonds ball issue.

Marc Ecko, who won the ball in an online auction that wrapped up Saturday, offers three choices:

-- Send the ball directly to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

-- Send it to Cooperstown after branding it with an asterisk that would acknowledge the public's suspicion that Bonds used steroids to boost his strength.

-- Put the ball on a rocket ship and launch it into space. He isn't saying where he's going to get the rocket ship.

"We all have opinions about this ball," said Ecko, who paid $752,467 for it and the right to run the election. "Some feel it is a piece of history that belongs in the Hall of Fame. Others believe it is the embodiment of cheating culture - not just in baseball, but in professional sports generally.

"I bought this baseball to democratize the debate over what to do with it and allow the public to decide," Ecko said in a statement Monday. "The idea that some of the best athletes in the country are forced to decide between being competitive and s taying natural is troubling."

He'll take votes until 11:59 p.m. Sept. 25 and says he'll do what the people want.

Echo is a man of wild and interesting stunts:

Ecko, 35, has made millions in the fashion business with his Ecko brand of clothing, headquartered in New York.

He also has a history of outlandish public stunts. Last year, he released a video on the Internet that seemed to show graffiti artists spray-painting Air Force One. It turned out the plane was a replica of the U.S. presidential aircraft.

"I wanted to do something culturally significant, wanted to create a real pop-culture moment," Ecko said after the video was revealed to be a hoax.

Will the Cooperstown HOF take a branded ball?  Damn straight they will:

The Hall of Fame doesn't care whether the ball gets tagged with an asterisk as long as the record-setter ends up in Cooperstown.

"We'd be absolutely elated" to get the ball, Hall of Fame spokesman Jeff Idelson said. "Regardless of whether it has an asterisk or not, it's the ball that set the mark. If it carries an asterisk, so be it."

The Giants are on the hall's side, team spokeswoman Staci Slaughter said.

"We feel that like all pieces of baseball history, a ball of this significance belongs in the Hall of Fame," Slaughter said. "We just think it would be appropriate to be there so that all baseball fans around the country could have the opportunity to enjoy it."

Vote Vote Vote.  However we hope former Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris will not certify the online voting.