According to FoxSports, the Baseball Hall of Fame has been offered Barry Bonds’ 700th homerun ball.
But they’re not taking it.
The current owner is Sportsbook.com, an online gambling operation who bought the ball for $102,000. Though they would give the ball with no strings attached, the HOF isn’t interested according to HOF spokesperson Jeff Idelson,
”The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will never accept an artifact from any company whose business is promoting gambling,” Idelson said. “We have a responsibility to preserve the game’s history.
“We would not intentionally compromise its integrity when there are other ways to tell the history of this milestone,” he said.
Some might think “What’s the big deal? Take the ball.” But I understand the position the HOF is taking. If anyone thinks that Sportsbook.com won’t use this to their advantage is being naive. The HOF needs to maintain the integrity of the game (or at least maintain the facade of such) by not associating or assisting gambling organizations.
Shoot, if they did that, they would have to let Pete Rose in, wouldn’t they?