Uhh think about it. He met fans all the time. He specifically didn't meet THIS fan so that he could keep the ball without the whole world calling him selfish
@@BlyGuy Actually it was number 1. McGwire convinced the dude to sell it. I think he got a signed jersey, bat and ball as well. McGwire is a solid dude from what I've heard. Bonds on the other hand....
@@Brett733 funny enough, I met Bonds at the Atlantis resort and casino back around 2002, when he was vacationing there with his family over the Thanksgiving holiday. His son was around the same age as my buddies little brother who I was there with and ended up playing some with Bonds kid. Barry couldn't have been nicer. He also wasn't nearly as jacked as I thought he'd be in person. Just looked like an normal fit dude. Brian Jordan was also down there that trip.
Compare McGwire's attitude to Roger Maris'. Maris met with the guy who caught his 61st in 1961 and told the guy to keep it. Maris said "he needs it more than I do." The guy sold it and used the money to buy his first home. Maris was a class act.
Jeter had no prob meeting fan who caught his 3000th hit hr ball..mcgwire was a d head...jeter acway more overall famous fan..and more importantly not a lying cheater and actually WON chips!!..😂..bet mgwire wishes he was more gracious..f the cards
And kinda killed it also when bonds broke the record. Plus a lot of drama behind that too. Probably my biggest memory of baseball when I was young. Even played McGuire in wax museum at school
Why would you ever give back a ball that’s record setting unless they’re offering something comparative in return? If I caught Judges Yankee HR record ball no chance I would have given it back
Actually the guy who wrote Spawn bought it and had an estimated worth of somewhere in neighborhood of $3.5 million so he invested his life’s savings into that ball. He was hoping to hold for a few years and sell for twice that value and then came Bonds
@@lancemanyon7645actually you’re wrong as well. He was worth way more and actually owned the oilers hockey team as well. He collects baseballs. He bought bonds ball as well when he broke that record. Do some research. Here, I’ll save you the time and post below. You’re welcome. McFarlane, 61, is a longtime baseball fan and spent $3 million for Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball in 1999, along with another reported $300,000 for the three home run balls prior to No. 70. His collection also includes several Sammy Sosa baseballs and Barry Bonds’ MLB record 73rd home run ball from 2001 - which set him back only $500,000 when he bought it in 2003. “If I don’t (buy a Judge ball), I still have the top three balls - Bonds 73, McGwire 70, and Sosa 66,” McFarlane said, referencing the top three single-season home run totals in MLB history. McGwire and Sosa hit their historic totals in 1998, then Bonds surpassed them in 2001. He estimates he’s spent about $4 million on baseballs, although most of his collection of about 70 balls are more personally meaningful than historic with high value.
@@lancemanyon7645 Todd is filthy rich with a ton of different business and has an absolutely massive collection of baseball memorabilia. Side note, is super open and awesome to fans.
@@AZrakoon Oh yeah. McGuire and Bonds and Clemmons and Sosa were all fantastic baseball players but each is a complete _piece-of-shit_ human being. I hope Cooperstown never calls any of them. Bonds didn't even have to think about steroids as good as he was, but...
This is why you DON’T GIVE UP THE BALL. You don’t talk to the team or the media or anyone. ‘I’ll be hiring an attorney, you can talk to them. Thank you’….. that’s it. Glad it works out for that guy.
@@shadow_tdwell it was a historic moment, so yes, anything tied to history of a sport, it's gonna fetch a lot of money. It wasn't luck, it was historic. Just imagine what Barry's 73rd home run ball sold for until the steroids scandal came.... Again when you think about the era and what the depreciation of it ended up dropping the price to despite the era, his ball is still estimated about 300k also, with his 756th home run ball worth around $750k despite the era. It's still worth a decent amount of money despite the history behind it. While it's very unlikely that McGuire nor Bonds makes the Hall of Fame because of the era, and may only get there by special conditions and not by vote, their memorabilia will still fetch a decent amount. It's sad that the steroids were used for years and years before it was exploited in the 90s yet it's because it was exploited in the 90s, these players in the late 90s get punished for it when it was widely used for decades prior. But it is what it is though.
@@rudyalonzo1609I wouldn’t pay 3 dollars to meet that cheating jerk. He’s right there with bonds and they wouldn’t have been able to break the record without steroids
@@eamonkelley3811The irony is, it is the same thing which causes someone to give up a ball everyone knows is going to be worth money for a picture with a dude, and the person that pays ridiculous amounts of money for a $7 baseball. Idolatry
Imagine being a baseball fan and catching a iconic baseball at the time from that current home run king. Fan pays a ticket and only request before giving the ball is to meet the player himself and that player declines. The fan got the last laugh. But unfortunately, he saw the true colors of that player that could not take time out of there day to do a meet and greet.
@@JP-wy2vk When your entire fortune is due to the fans, then yes... you are an asshole. Turns out he is the kind of douche who would do drugs to achieve fame made of tin. So yes.... he sure did show his true colors. I fear for the state of the world when this generation takes over.
Great for the fan. It’s unfortunate that McGuire didn’t want to meet the fan, however it’s great the fan was able to keep that life changing amount of money.
I held a Baseball that was signed by both Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, in 1973. My Mom had it on the Fireplace Mantle and my Uncle Barry said that he wanted it, so we gave it to him. I found out in 2006, that it was a 1951 Baseball and the New York Yankees won the World Series that year. I'm told that ball is worth a minimum of $10,000, but it's not for sale because my Great Uncle George Fisher owned the Staten Island Dry Cleaners and had a contract with the Yankees to clean their uniforms. So. It has sentimental value to my Uncle Barry (my Mom's older brother). Unfortunately he's in Chemo therapy and he's not going to be around much more. Its sad. My cousin Robert and his sons will have that Baseball and keep it in the family! We were All born in the Bronx too! It's not always about the money!
So juiced.... there's only 2 ways for a grown man's head to continually get bigger in adulthood, either through gigantism or being on the juice...his head was like a damn pumpkin 😆
@@karlepaul6632Wow are you wrong. Mike Tyson even at 58 still gets close to his physique he had at 20. He does it all with calisthenics, hard work and , good sleep amd a lot of food. You are clearly uneducated and probably a person who never worked hard for anything. To this day all they found in Macguires system was an over the counter product called Andro 6. Made by EAS Sports. They NEVER found steroids in his system ever. He caught hell because baseball banned Andro 6 unbeknownst to Macguires. They banned it because it claimed to help boost Testosterone levels which 1 year later was proved a fraudulent statement. Now Barry Bonds is a different story. He tested positive several times and his seller produced documentation proving Bonds was contacting him to purchase steroids. Macguires catches so much shit for being a naturally large man who worked hard. He entered the League banging over 50 home runs and never stopped. He just got better and stronger as one would with a life style that is lived by hardwood. Everyone is so fast to believe what they hear in news or just garbage sports shows. Bonds entered the league a good hitter but not big on home runs then in his thirties starts suddenly banging them out of the park at the same time his supplier has him on tape talking steroids and how much he needs to bring to pay him and then showing up to meet the guy and getting recorded again saying this is what I owe you for the juice. Now that's guilty. Bitch about the right man or not at all.
@@favoritemustard3542 spawn comic not toy is what I obviously meant. If you read this thread starting with OP to my comment and didn’t understand that, idk, maybe you have the reading comprehension of a 3rd grader, that or you’re on the spectrum.
@@cbrreezzyy69 btw he was worth $3.5M at the time of the purchase of the baseball. If you're going to be pedantic, at least do it in an informed way. Your comment has 0 historical context going on. (I'll leave that simple math problem [3.5 - 3] in your hands) lol
For those of you who would like the full story this is it: legendary comic book artist and former collegiate baseball player Todd McFarlane purchased the ball not just because he was a massive baseball fan but also in order to help legitimize his name throughout the sports world. He had an action figure company called McFarlane Toys that was known for its incredible detail, he knew there was huge money to be made in licensing sports figures so he thought buying the ball and putting his name out there would help in the future when attempting to get the licensing rights to major sports leagues and it appears like it did (his figures were incredible as is, chances are as long as he got an interview with the leagues he would’ve got the deals but getting the interview isn’t a cakewalk). Lastly guess who ended up buying Barry Bonds record home run ball? That’s right, Todd McFarlane for a little over $500,000 so do not let this RU-vid short convince you that it was a bad purchase because there’s way more to the story than what this guy was willing to share. People who only tell 1/4th the story are ruining this planet and attempting to get you beat up, do not fall for their half truths research and make sure you’re fully aware of what’s going on or you’ll end up making RU-vid shorts for a hobby/job like this guy (chances are he’s on TikTok too).
The story isnt about some rich A hole, so he paid $2.5 million more for a ball with less home runs. The steroid scandal murdered baseball on top of a few lockouts
I was raised and live in St Louis. McGuire put us on the map. He was on an episode of the Simpsons for Christ's sake. And then it happened. Still a crushing blow that we don't even talk about.
They sure juiced the price on the baseball. Fun fact, though: The MLB has a 10 million dollar budget for baseballs each year. With the postseason, the MLB uses roughly 900,000 baseballs per year.
Dude dropped the ball. If i ever catch a milestone ball like this, I’m asking for the mlb golden ticket, if not the golden ticket at least life time tickets to that team’s games.
@@Meerkat2112 the dude sold the ball for 3 mill. Let’s say the average ticket price is $100. You take 3 mill and divide that by the average ticket price, and you can buy roughly 30,000 tickets for $3 million. Divide 30,000 tickets by 162 games/year, assuming you go 162 games a year, and you would have enough tickets for 185 seasons! Explain to me how this would be too much for the mlb, who makes billions of dollars 😭
can we throw some attention that Mark was such a GIANT DOUCHE that he wouldn't even meet the fan in return for arguably the most momentous homerun ball of all time?
The guy who bought the baseball was comic book legend Todd McFarlane Image comics co-founder, creator of Spawn, owner of his own toy and entertainment company, and artist of the most lucrative Spider-Man run ever. So after losing the 3 million he’s probably doing more than fine
When I was about 13 years old I told a lot of people at my school that my dad worked for MLB. For $15 dollars I can get any ball signed. I would get the money and sign it myself. Those were the good days.
Imagine the range of emotions from the fan. Says he wants to meet Mark McGuire, gets turned down so he keeps the ball. 3 months later gets paid 3million dollars changing his life forever. He’s now indebted to Mark McGuire.😂
I go to games constantly and I always think about it…If I catch a really important ball, I don’t want no tickets, no bats, no signature…I just want my money. All these ppl are millionaires already so it’s time for me to get some of that money…don’t even ask me !! 😂
I remember that season him and Sammy Sosa were in the running to break the record, I had a mark McGuire birthday cake that year, its was so cool, even tho I'm an Angels fan.
I remember that the fan who caught McGwire's ball want a long list of items (e.g. jersey, bat, etc.) to be signed for the trade. McGwire had wanted to give the ball to his son which is still a joke given its then value.
