Bond's ball to be branded

The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online auction, set up a Web site for fans to vote on the ball's fate, and Wednesday announced the decision to brand it won out over the other options -- sending it to Cooperstown unblemished or launching it into space. 47% voted to brand the the ball, 34% voted to put the ball unmarked into Cooperstown while just 19% wanted to launch it into space.

Ecko said he believed the vote to brand the ball showed people thought "this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that wasn't necessarily the clearest it could be." Bonds publicist Rachael Vizcarra did not immediately respond to an e-mail sent early Wednesday seeking comment about the ball's fate.

Hall of Fame president Dale Petroskey said accepting the ball did not mean the Hall in Cooperstown, N.Y., endorses the viewpoint that Barry Bonds used drugs. "This ball wouldn't be coming to Cooperstown if Marc hadn't bought it from the fan who caught it and then let the fans have their say," Petroskey told The Associated Press. "We're delighted to have the ball. It's a historic piece of baseball history."

Although we think branding a ball this historic, and more importantly, worth that much dough is pure lunacy, the people have spoken. This is the dumbest branding in sports since Mike Tyson's face tattoo.