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| Posted By | Discussion Topic: He must feel like such a tool now | ||||
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| TeenWeek what's a status? | posted on 10-05-2001 @ 9:08 AM |    | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00  | Found this and thought he became topical again. McFarlane reveals expensive baseball collection Posted: Monday February 08, 1999 10:29 PM NEW YORK (AP) - Saying he was a "psycho fan" and a "sports geek," Spawn comic book creator Todd McFarlane revealed Monday he was the anonymous bidder who paid more than $3 million for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball. McFarlane, who also has a company that makes action figures, said the timing of his announcement was tied to the yearly Toy Fair in New York. "It was a mixture of business, charity and self indulgence to the Nth degree," he said of the decision to buy the ball. McFarlane, a 37-year-old Canadian who lives in Tempe, Ariz., is a minority investor in the NHL's Edmonton Oilers. He said he would like to allow the Hall of Fame to show the ball at times, would make it available to charities to raise money and would let individual major league teams display it. The price? "I'd like to be able to take 20 swings in every major league ballpark," he said during a news conference. McFarlane said purchasing the ball for $3,005,000 was cheaper than buying a sports team. He mentioned the proposed $800 million sale of the Washington Redskins. "The way I look at it, I'm up $799 million bucks," he said. He said he wasn't worried about someone breaking the record McGwire set last September. "If it gets too close, I saw what Tonya Harding did a few years ago, so there are options," he said, referring how Harding's entourage hired someone to attack rival skater Nancy Kerrigan. In all, McFarlane bought nine home run balls hit by McGwire and Sammy Sosa, including McGwire's first, 63rd, 67th, 68th and 69th, and Sosa's 33rd (his record 20th in June), 61st and 66th. McFarlane was dressed in a black collarless shirt and black jeans. The balls were displayed in front of him in nine cases atop nine columns, with four burgundy velvet ropes separating them from the crowd. Behind him was a banner with "Todd McFarlane Productions" spelled out 103 times. McFarlane bought the ball at auction Jan. 12, paying $2.7 million to Philip Ozersky, a research scientist at Washington University who caught the ball Sept. 27 at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Guernsey's auction house got an additional $305,000 as its commission. Sosa's final home run of the season, No. 66, cost McFarlane $172,500. All the others he bought at the auction cost under $20,000 apiece. McFarlane outbid Irwin Sternberg, the president of the neckwear firm Stonehenge Ltd., for No. 70. Sternberg stopped at $2.6 million; McFarlane said $2.9 million was as high as he was willing to go. "I blew my life savings on this," McFarlane said. "I'm not Donald Trump. I don't have a lot of cash." The group of balls will be called "The McFarlane Collection." "Given that I name all my corporations after myself, I'll name it after myself," he said. "Better than the 'Guy Who Has More Money Than Brains Collection.' "  | ||||
| Drunken GW I Pissed on a Church to get this Status. | posted on 10-05-2001 @ 9:14 AM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Dec. 00 | It's funny cause it's not me. If your parents never had children, chances are you won't either. | ||||
| prototype | posted on 10-05-2001 @ 9:40 AM | | |||
| Psychopath Registered: Aug. 01 | What do you think his wife is saying since now the ball is probaly used for playing fetch with the dog. Free Northern Ireland | ||||
| TeenWeek what's a status? | posted on 10-05-2001 @ 9:53 AM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Oct. 00 | proto it is still valuable but maybe half of what he paid for it now since Bonds tied it. If Bonds breaks it this weekend, than the ball is worth shit. Funniest part of this article is this: quote: | ||||
...And now the battle between us and them has begun. JYD-4-LIFE. | posted on 10-05-2001 @ 8:14 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Veteran Registered: May. 00 | read this and tell me if he feels like a tool. straight from the today show on tuesday Spawn creator Todd McFarlane appeared on NBC's The Today Show on Tuesday, bringing along the 70th home run ball hit by Mark McGwire. The occasion was the pursuit by Barry Bonds of McGwire's single-season home run record. Bonds, of the San Francisco Giants, has 69 home runs. He failed to hit a home run Tuesday night in Houston, and has five games remaining. McFarlane paid $3 million for the McGwire ball in 1998 and could sustain substantial loss on it if Bonds breaks the record. Following is a transcript of the conversation between McFarlane and The Today Show's Matt Lauer: Lauer: Todd McFarlane, good morning. McFarlane: Hey, how are ya doing today? Lauer: I'm probably doing a lot better than you're doing today. Let me take you back to something you said three years ago. "I made the biggest bet in America that this record wouldn't fall." How you feeling about that statement right now? McFarlane: It may be proven to have been foolhardy. We've still got six games, three at Houston, which actually has given up the most home runs in the entire league. So the odds are stacked against me right now. Lauer: What happens to the value of that ball on the table right there if Barry Bonds ties or breaks McGwire's record, in your opinion? Have you done some research? McFarlane: Actually, a lot of people having been asking me that question. It's sort of irrelevant if you're not ever going to sell what it is you're talking about. The value goes down the moment I buy it anyways, three years ago, because I was the last guy standing in the bid. It's going to go down, obviously, dramatically if somebody breaks the record. I think people that people are overreacting as to going from $3 million to zero, given the historical significance of the '98 race. Lauer: Right. He was the first guy to break the record of Roger Maris in 37 years. Plus, it was a storied race. There was so much emotion in that race. McFarlane: If you go back and look at it, when Maris broke Babe Ruth's record, it didn't diminish who Babe Ruth was. When McGwire broke the Maris record from '61, it didn't take away from what Maris accomplished. Each time somebody sets a new standard, we remember it. To give you an example, I bet you most people can tell you the name of the guy who ran the four-minute mile the first time, but can't tell you who ran it last week. So, again, once when a standard has been set, and once again it's a national story, it becomes into our psyche, and we sort of pay attention to it. Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon … you probably can't name the fifth guy. Maybe if somebody gets to 80… Lauer: Then, that would be worth a lot of money. McFarlane: Then we've got another standard that gets crossed. Lauer: You also own some other balls from that home run race, the Sosa-McGwire race. They are also not for investment purposes, you bought those for sentimental reasons? McFarlane: Not, sentimental reasons. There are 10 of them in the collection. We've got a wall that we've built with video and music and photos. We've traveled around the country nonstop for three years. Approximately 2 million people have been able to go through it, more people actually attended the Hall of Fame in the same amount of time. We've raised money for ALS, the Lou Gehrig's disease, and it was a goodwill tour that we let everybody come free of charge. It draws a little bit of attention to some of my business endeavors. Any time you're out there in the business community on a personal level and you're going to try to do something philanthropic, I have to spend money anyways. Lauer: But $3 million for a baseball, Todd, that's a lot of money to spend. McFarlane: It's an enormous amount of money, but I think that people sort of think that if I hadn't have spent it, it'd be sitting in a bank some place. I am a business man and somebody who goes around doing foundation work, it would have been spent someplace else. Lauer: You didn't take out any kind of insurance? There's no such thing as insurance of important of a ball like this? McFarlane: I'm sure Lloyd's of London, if I gave them $2.9 million, would have insured it. I went into a zealous bidding, with a 37-year gap between it being challenged. Which is one of the reasons why I believe that if Bonds breaks the record, and it goes up, the value will go down because I'll be a walking example. "Don't do what that kid did. He overpaid, and I don't want to look like a fool like he did." Lauer: You've said all the right things: That you bought this for the right reasons, not for the investment, that you would have spent the money anyway. But honestly speaking, how much would you take for that ball right now? McFarlane: Well, it's still the record, so if I'm going to sell, I better do it probably before the Houston series is over. Lauer: Exactly right. Exactly right. So how much would you take for that ball right now? If I were to offer you $2 million for that ball right now, would take it? McFarlane: No, probably not. Lauer: Probably not? You'd think about it, though? McFarlane: I'm not in desperate need for the money right now. Lauer: But do you think $2 million would be a fair offer for the potential value of that ball after tonight's game? McFarlane: Well, it depends on what he does tonight. (laughs) Although I have fun, I was going to go to Pac-Bell and was going to have my sign, "It would be fine if you stopped at 69." But I've sort of taking a step back from it. Although I know there's going to be diminished value here, we're all dealing in a bit of a new world. And I know that me right now having my health, my life and the love of my family -- and a diminished baseball potentially - I know that there are 6,000 families in New York right now (snaps) that would trade me right now. Lauer: Priorities have changed. McFarlane: So I'll deal with whatever outcome I have with my baseball. Lauer: Real quickly, so are you rooting against Barry Bonds? Every time he steps up to the plate, do you hope he pops up or hits a ground ball? McFarlane: Not really. Again, you use Sept. 11. Right now, we might have to ask a lot of young American men to focus physically and mentally on a task. So in a roundabout way, this might be another example of showing what a tough American can do when he sort of puts his mind and body to something - even if he's in sort of the opposition's ball park. And the government and the president might ask that of a lot of men. Like I said, it's tough of me to get worked up over it, given that I see the plight of the people in this country, and specifically this city, the last few days. Lauer: We appreciate your comments and your time. Good luck to you. McFarlane: OK, thank you.  Across the field you see the sky ripped open See the rain through a gaping wound Pounding on the women and children Who run Into the arms Of America-U2 | ||||
| JJ G.O.O.F.B.A.H.G.S. Soldier of Fortune Spec Ops Division | posted on 10-05-2001 @ 8:16 PM | | |||
| O&A Board Regular Registered: Feb. 01 | TW, its not worth shit, its jus not worth as much. and hey if it does become worthless he might be smart enough to give it to the Hall Of Fame to keep. 
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