Bonds Fights Punctuation Symbols: "Asterisk or Me"

Teamless "victim" Barry Bonds has challenged the Baseball Hall of Fame to deny his asterisk-laced home-run ball, or he will boycott the Hall of Fame. Assuming he gets voted in, of course:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Barry Bonds would boycott Cooperstown if the Hall of Fame displays his record-breaking home run ball with an asterisk.

That includes skipping his potential induction ceremony.

"I won't go. I won't be part of it," Bonds said in an interview with MSNBC that aired Thursday night. "You can call me, but I won't be there."

The ball Bonds hit for home run No. 756 this season will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the Hall. Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball in an online auction and set up a Web site for fans to vote on its fate. In late September, he announced fans voted to send the ball to Cooperstown with an asterisk.

Of course, the asterisk suggests Bonds' record is tainted by alleged steroid use. The slugger has denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. Fans brought signs with asterisks to ballparks this season as he neared Hank Aaron's career home run mark.

Bonds has called Ecko "an idiot."

"I don't think you can put an asterisk in the game of baseball, and I don't think that the Hall of Fame can accept an asterisk," Bonds said. "You cannot give people the freedom, the right to alter history. You can't do it. There's no such thing as an asterisk in baseball."

Ecko may indeed be a self-promoting idiot. But Barry clearly doesn't know baseball history, or he would be aware of Roger Maris and the asterisk he lived with for so many years. Barry, there is indeed such a thing as an asterisk in baseball--and according to the fans, you've earned one. Enjoy.