WASHINGTON -- If Gilbert Arenas has his way, the baseball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking 756th career homer will never be branded with an asterisk.
Arenas' solution? He wants to buy the ball.
Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball in an online auction, then set up a Web site so people could vote to determine its fate. Ecko announced the winning choice this week: branding the ball with an asterisk before it's sent to the Hall of Fame.
"I don't think he should mess up history like that," Arenas said Friday.
"It's history. It's still history. I mean, the guy's a man before he's some big slugger," he added. "I mean, how you just going to take what this man's done for his career and ... say, 'Hey, you were accused of this. You allegedly did this. I want to take this away from you.'? I mean, what if we took away your Ecko company? I mean, why graffiti the ball?"
Later Friday, Arenas posted an entry on his blog making the same point.
"I'll buy the ball from you Ecko for $800,000. If Barry Bonds is found guilty, I'll give it back to you. I'm not going to let you go around like some little superhero," the blog says. "I'll put it in my hall of fame. The Gilbert Hall of Fame for Athletes no matter what you did."
