The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York has turned down an offer to donate Barry Bonds' 700th career home run ball from sportsbook.com, the online gambling site that bought it at auction a year ago.
A spokesman for sportsbook.com indicated that the offer was a donation with no strings attached. Despite the generous offer, the Hall of Fame wasn't opening its doors for Bonds' milestone ball any time soon in light of the controversy surrounding the slugger and his alleged abuse of steroids.
That was not the official reason given by the Hall, however. Jeff Idelson, a spokesman for the Baseball Hall of Fame explained that rejecting the deal was an obvious decision.
'The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum will never accept artifacts from any company known to be involved with 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.'
Baseball has purposely distanced itself from gambling since the 1919 Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series. Eight players from that team were suspended for life in what became known as the 'Black Sox Scandal.'
All-time hits leader Pete Rose was also banned for life after admitting he bet on baseball games as manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the mid-80s. Despite holding many records, Rose is still not in the Hall of Fame.
Sportsbook.com said it was disappointed by the Hall's decision but it understood.
We are very disappointed that the Hall of Fame has turned down our offer, though we are not completely surprised,' said Alex Czajkowski, marketing director for Sportsbook.com. 'We understand and respect the Hall of Fame's position.'
Of course, there could be other reasons that the Hall of Fame doesn't want to get too close to Barry Bonds right now. Reasons like 'the cream' and 'the clear.'
