Bonds' 700th HR ball fetches $800K at auction

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Giants slugger Barry Bonds' 700th home run ball brought a top bid of $804,129 Wednesday after a 10-day online auction.

The ball had received 240 offers by the time Overstock.com closed the bidding. The identity of the top bidder, nicknamed "bomasterj," was not immediately made public.

Pacifica resident Steve Williams got the ball after a scramble in the left-center field bleachers at SBC Park on Sept. 17.

Reached by phone Wednesday after the winning bid was announced, Williams said he'll quit his job as a broker's assistant in San Mateo but has no idea yet what he'll do with the money.

Timothy Murphy, a San Mateo man, has sued Williams, saying he should get the ball because he had it locked behind his knees while at the bottom of a scrum before Williams swiped it.

A San Francisco judge refused to delay the sale, freeing Williams to auction it. Attorneys for Murphy said they are continuing with their suit and will seek proceeds from the ball's sale as damages.

Williams' lawyer, Daniel Horowitz, speculated the ball's price will prompt more people to try to claim ownership.

"All of the roaches are gonna try to hang on to Mom's apple pie and we're gonna squash them," Horowitz said.

The Web site's policy is to verify that the highest bidder has the means and intention to make the purchase before declaring a winner, said Holly MacDonald, Overstock's vice president of auctions.

Bonds became the first member of the 700-homer club in 31 years, joining Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron. He now has 703 career home runs, trailing only Ruth (714) and Aaron (755).

In October 2001, Bonds' record-setting 73rd homer of the season sparked litigation that ended when a judge ordered two men who claimed ownership to split the $450,000 the ball fetched. That ball may have fetched more, but it didn't get sold until a year after the home run because a judge ordered it to remain under lock and key until the litigation ended.

Doug Allen, president of Mastronet.com, an online sports auction site, had valued Bonds' 700th home run ball in the $100,000 range, saying the baseballs that break Ruth's and Aaron's records will be more valuable.

"It's an incredible collectible, but that's even more of an incredible price," Allen said.

In 1999, comic book icon Todd McFarlane paid $3.2 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball, a year after the St. Louis Cardinal slugger broke Roger Maris' 37-year-old record of 61 home runs in a season.