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Who owns baseball's record-breaking ball? Professor says it should be saved for all of us
Oct. 2, 2001
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Tonight, as San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds continues his quest for the single-season home run record, Major League Baseball will do nothing to ensure that an important sports artifact doesn't go to the highest bidder and into someone's private collection, says an Indiana University professor.
"While it is a thrill for the fans who caught or bought these home run balls to own them, the vast majority of baseball fans will be denied seeing these record-breaking balls. They are not enshrined in baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, but relegated to private collections," said L. Thomas Bowers, director of the MBA Sports and Entertainment Academy in IU's Kelley School of Business.
"That is a national sports disgrace, for the people who own these balls hit no home runs and did little else to create the value of these balls. Why should someone get a million-dollar gift merely because he sits in the sun and downs a few brews or because he can out-paddle, out-swim or out-box other kayakers or swimmers in McCovey Cove?"
After Mark McGwire broke the previous home run record three years ago, Bowers campaigned for baseball to address the situation. He asked teams to take steps to ensure that future record-breaking balls will be returned by fans. With Bonds closing in on the record held by McGwire, Bowers said, Major League Baseball again is ignoring the issue.
Instead, Major League Baseball instituted a plan to authenticate game mementos by sending representatives of a business consulting firm to about 200 games this season, including many during Bonds' record chase. Hologram stickers containing a serial number are being affixed to mementos from games, and the items are then being listed in a database on Major League Baseball's Web site. This is being done to help fans determine whether a baseball artifact is authentic.
While Bowers, himself a fan of the game, thinks it is admirable that baseball is doing something to protect fans against fraud, he says team owners haven't done enough to keep items like historic baseballs from going anywhere else but Cooperstown.
Bowers has two suggestions that fly in the face of tradition: Fans must return the ball, and Major League Baseball should take steps to protect its ownership of the ball as it leaves the park.
"A baseball leaving the pitcher's hand is the property of the home team, and the ball remains the property of the home team if the team amends the terms of the license under which a fan attends a baseball game," Bowers explained. "Currently, by selling a ticket the home team grants a license permitting the fan to enter the premises. As a license, however, the permission to enter the stadium may be revoked at any time for almost any reason. For example, the license may be revoked for intoxication or unruly behavior.
"To protect its memorabilia, Major League teams may modify the license by requiring fans to agree to return a record-breaking home run ball. The National Basketball Association has such a policy for all game balls that enter the stands. While basketballs may be larger than baseballs and more difficult to retrieve, baseball teams should reverse their historical reluctance to recover balls hit into the stands when record-breaking balls are concerned. Not only does the Hall of Fame want the ultimate home run ball hit by Bonds, but also the vast majority of fans want to see the ball enshrined in Cooperstown, even if they never enjoy the opportunity to see the ball."
Legally, baseballs are not abandoned property but lost or misplaced property, which belongs to the loser or misplacer. "This result is understood even by those without legal training. Anyone who has played backyard baseball as a child knows that hitting a home run into a neighbor's yard doesn't give ownership to the mean next-door neighbor who hates kids, a rule enforced by dads everywhere," Bowers said.
Bowers understands that he is not taking a popular position. "Some may argue this solution to baseball's memorabilia problem is a socialist plot to interfere with the free market. In fact, it ensures that those who produce desirable results are the ones rewarded, not someone who steals the work of others."
(George Vlahakis, 812-855-0846, gvlahaki@indiana.edu)