Bonds' Record Home Run Ball To Have Fate Determined By Internet Vote

Barry Bonds' baseball career has been out of this world, and now his record-breaking home run ball has a chance to leave the realm of our planet.

Fashion designer Marc Ecko revealed himself as Saturday's winning bidder in the online auction for the ball that Bonds hit last month to break Hank Aaron's all-time home-run record of 755. The selling price for No. 756 was $752,467.

Ecko is collecting votes on whether to give the ball to the Baseball Hall of Fame, brand it with an asterisk or send it into space.

Photo of Barry Bonds hitting 756th career home run by Heinz Kluetmeier/Sports Illustrated

"I bought this baseball to democratize the debate over what to do with it," the 35-year-old Ecko wrote on the Web site. "The idea that some of the best athletes in the country are forced to decide between being competitive and staying natural is troubling."

Ecko is known for pop culture pranks, including an Internet video that showed him apparently infiltrating an airport tarmac and spray-painting graffiti on Air Force One. The incident was a hoax.

Ecko said he voted to brand the ball with an asterisk, a reference to the belief that the Giants slugger's record is tainted by his alleged use of performance enhancing substances. Bonds has denied knowingly using steroids.

Voting ends at 11:59 pm on Sept. 25.

What a perfect closing chapter for the symbol of one of the weirdest record-breaking moments in baseball history. Rarely was a grand moment of the national pastime met with such a collective yawn from the public.