Worthless? Or priceless?

Gonzo gum fiasco is certainly something to chew on

So a guy paid $10,000 this week for a piece of bubble gum that once was chewed by Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Luis Gonzalez. This was one of those online auctions and the seller offered to have the gum tested for DNA, just to prove that Luis actually chewed it and the winning bidder said he wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do with it, maybe put the gum on display, and ...

Wow. Is there no end to this stuff? Is there nothing that is absolutely worthless on the memorabilia front? Where's it all going? What's it all mean?

How much am I bid for a vial of Paul Tagliabue's dandruff? For this shoelace that came very close to Jerry Rice's left foot and actually was touched by his hands many times? How much for Derek Jeter's electric bill? For Tiger Woods' ball marker? For this cube of ice, collected and kept frozen after it was scraped from Brett Hull's skate?

Hey, Shaquille, you going to finish that sandwich? Or put it on E-Bay?

I am reminded -- more and more often, really -- of a comment from a security guard at Pimlico Downs after the Preakness a number of years ago. The guard said a woman appeared, every year, and collected a box of manure from the Preakness champion to fertilize her garden. This sounded wacky to me. I asked the guard what he thought about it.

"I don't know," he said, "but the lady says she's got the biggest damn tomatoes in all of Baltimore."

Leigh Montville's commentaries appear regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated.

 

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