This morning, fashion designer Marc Ecko -- the guy who bought Barry Bonds's 756th home run ball -- was back to announce the results of his online poll to determine the fate of the ball. WATCH VIDEO
He paid more than $750,000 for the ball and asked people to go to vote756.com to determine what he should do with the ball:
a) Bestow It -- give the ball to the National Baseball Hall of Fame
b) Brand It -- branding the ball with an asterisk before giving it to the Hall of Fame
c) Banish It -- put the ball on a rocket and send it into space
More than 10 million people voted and they opted to...brand it with an asterisk. Here are the complete results:
Brand It -- 47%
Bestow It -- 34%
Banish It -- 19%
Ecko said he'll be giving the ball to the people in Cooperstown "soon," so you'll be able to visit the ball -- with an asterisk.
My Q&A with him last week generated debates among commenters over what Ecko should do with the ball and whether he was just seeking publicity. Some applauded his decision to turn over the choice to the public and others called him "transparent and lame" and said the whole thing was "a waste of money."
I think Ecko was genuinely excited by the prospect of turning over the decision to the public, and he clearly has no regrets about spending more than $750,000 to buy the ball. (Plus I assume his donation of the ball to the Hall of Fame will be tax deductible -- maybe an accountant can comment on that.)
For Ecko, it was a win-win: although he didn't talk about his company, he got himself on TODAY a couple times, and that's never a bad thing in the publicity department.