"Disgruntled collector to sell Bonds memorabilia"

[staindsox]

I thought all of you guys might appreciate this article on espn.com since we've already heard about it so much.

Chris

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2560336

[sportscentury]

Chris,

Thanks for posting this. Sounds like Bonds completely ruined a long-time hobby for a passionate fan and collector. Bonds clearly has some pretty serious and persistent personality problems. Hopefully the stuff will do well in Lelands, at least.

I have been offered some amazing Bonds items at very low prices recently ... no doubt that the market has plummeted, just as the bottom fell out for Raffy. With that said, if you remain a Bonds or Raffy collector, it is a buyer's market for certain. Same is true for Mac and Sosa.

Reid

[Eric]

Memorabilia collector dumping Bonds
By LANCE WILLIAMS and MARK FAINARU-WADA
August 23, 2006

For nearly 20 years, former New York investment banker Jeff Kranz was Barry Bonds' most determined fan.
Kranz quit his job on Wall Street to trail the slugger across the country and watch him play baseball. He schmoozed with Bonds in phone calls and on visits to the Giants dugout. He bought him gifts and paid him tens of thousands of dollars to sign bats and balls at private autograph sessions.

Along the way, Kranz says, he spent more than $250,000 to build the world's greatest collection of Bonds' game-used gear: 11 fielder's gloves, 33 jerseys and 166 bats, many of them autographed by the Giants star.

The remains of that trove of baseball history - including the jersey Bonds wore when he hit his first home run at Pac Bell Park and his cleats from the 1996 All-Star Game - are for sale this month on an Internet auction.

Kranz is embittered because he says Bonds falsely told the FBI that many items in his collection were fakes - and then brought FBI agents to the collector's Long Island home in search of clues. He has broken with Bonds and has dumped his Bonds memorabilia, selling much of it at deep discount.

Bonds' accusations about fake memorabilia were "bogus" and "a total lie," Kranz says, and he found them particularly hurtful because he had done so much to ingratiate himself with the slugger.

"Barry should appreciate a person like me," Kranz said when interviewed by The San Francisco Chronicle. "Personally, I felt betrayed."

Kranz's story of Bonds and his disputed memorabilia sheds light on the origins of the federal investigation into whether the outfielder committed perjury in connection with the BALCO steroids conspiracy case.

The person Kranz was buying most of his memorabilia from was Bonds' then-business manager Steve Hoskins, who has emerged as a prospective witness against the Giants star.

Federal documents show that in July 2003, Bonds went to the Federal Building in San Francisco and complained to an FBI agent that Hoskins had been "forging Barry's name to merchandise and then pocketing the money," as Bonds' lawyer, Michael Rains, puts it.

Unbeknownst to Bonds, federal agents were investigating BALCO and had put Bonds' trainer and suspected drug supplier, Greg Anderson, under surveillance. Anderson and three other men later pleaded guilty to steroid dealing as a result of that investigation.

Without explanation, the agent asked Bonds whether he had ever used steroids. Rains said Bonds was not told he was under investigation, even though agents "had Greg and Barry under surveillance for months by then," and "obviously they were targeting Barry." Bonds denied using steroids, federal records show, and repeated the denial before a grand jury in December 2003.

Now the government is investigating whether Bonds lied when he made those statements. It is a crime to lie to a federal agent, as well as to lie in sworn testimony before a grand jury. Last year, the FBI dismissed Bonds' complaints about memorabilia fraud and exonerated Hoskins, according to Hoskins' lawyer, Michael Cardoza.

After that, government investigators interviewed Hoskins about Bonds, Cardoza told The San Francisco Chronicle. Hoskins told the investigators that he had personal knowledge that Bonds used steroids, Cardoza said.

Rains has denied that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs and dismissed Hoskins as a vengeful ex-friend with a motive to lie.

Rains called Kranz "a very legitimate and ethical guy." But he disputed the collector's claim that the Giants slugger made false accusations about the memorabilia, saying Bonds went to the FBI to stop a real crime.

Over the years Hoskins assisted Kranz in buying many items of Bonds memorabilia, Kranz says, and he is convinced they were authentic and were sold with Bonds' approval. In many cases, Kranz says, there are photos of Bonds signing the very bats and jerseys he later told the FBI were forgeries.

Kranz, 47, is a lifelong baseball fan. He says he worked for years as a bond broker and partner at Cantor Fitzgerald LP, a big New York investment bank that before the 2001 terrorist attacks was headquartered in the World Trade Center.

In 1993, before a Giants game against the Reds, Kranz says he met Bonds in a Cincinnati hotel room and paid him $40,000 to autograph 1,000 items - bats, balls, ticket stubs, copies of a Sports Illustrated magazine with Bonds on the cover. After that, Kranz says, he quit Wall Street to devote all his time to traveling to Giants games and collecting and reselling Bonds gear. His hobby, as he says, became his business.

In the years that followed, Kranz says, he had "many personal conversations and many phone conversations" with the Giants star. Hoskins often got Kranz into the Giants dugout before games so he could talk to Bonds, he says. When he wasn't at the game, Kranz tracked Bonds' hitting, making a practice of "waiting up on ESPN to see his numbers" before going to bed.

It was exciting to follow the arc of Bonds' career, especially as the slugger zeroed in on the single-season home run record during the 2001 season. But even on a good day Bonds was a difficult man to be around, Kranz says. At the Cincinnati session, he recalls that Bonds greeted him rudely, saying, "How much money are you going to make off of me?" When Bonds finished signing, Kranz said, the ballplayer refused to pose for a photo with Kranz's 8-year-old son.

Rains said that "Kranz has been unhappy with Barry because Barry didn't take the time to offer the personal touches, to call and thank him, to pose for pictures and do all the things one might expect if one spends that kind of money" on an athlete's memorabilia.

Kranz began selling his Bonds gear in a market that he says had been "deeply depressed" by the combination of the memorabilia controversy and the steroid scandal. Before BALCO, game-used Bonds bats could command $3,500, he says. But in recent months, they have gone for as little as $1,100.

"It's like bad news on a stock," he says.

Kranz's auction at Lelands.com, which ends Friday, has attracted moderate interest. He hopes the Giants jersey that the FBI seized will go for $15,000 - half what it was once worth. Although Kranz says he is finished with Bonds, he is still collecting memorabilia. His new focus is Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon Webb, whom Kranz sees as a future superstar.

"I picked Brandon," he says. "I went to his wedding in Kentucky.

"My experience is nothing like the one I had with Barry."

[stkmtimo]

I'd hate to say this, but any guy that quits a very good job working as an investment banker to trail a baseball player around the country has a bit of a problem. I don't doubt that Kranz had the resources to do so, but why you would expend that much energy on someone who isn't even a family member is perplexing. To top it all off, he's now focusing on Brandon Webb. How the heck did he get to go to his wedding? I'm never invited to anything like that

Tim

[norristrophy]

This guy sounds like a real weirdo. I imagine he has a very nice van with no windows.

[cjosefy]

This guy sounds like a real weirdo. I imagine he has a very nice van with no windows.

Down by the river?

[mr.miracle]

In all fairness, if any of us had the resources to do it, who would not quit their job and follow players or teams around the country. If I could do it, I would love to follow my favorite sports teams. Not sure about that level of devotion to a player but if that is your thing then more power to you.

[hblakewolf]

Brett-
Follow a team.....maybe

Follow a specific player around the country.......not a chance

Collecting and paying top dollar for Bonds equipment for almost 20 years, and now discovering your collection may be worth half (or less) of what you've invested and have your idol visit your home with the FBI.....priceless.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[mr.miracle]

Good point Howard, as big of a fan as I have been for 25 years of Cal Ripken Jr., I don't believe that I would have ever followed him that closely although I would have loved to have had the means to follow the Orioles on some of those roadtrips throughout Cal's career if for no other reason than to see other ballparks in person and see other major league cities.

One of the quotes I loved from the story is Bonds saying "How much money are you going to make off me". Maybe Barry should take a look in the mirror and ask himself how much money he has made off the fans that foolishly supported him over the years. While this example is one man making money off of Bonds, Bonds has made many, many millions off of fans who idolized a guy who could care less about those people. Just a very interesting sidenote.

[allstarsplus]

Anybody know the story of Tom Cruise following Joe DiMaggio?

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Tom Cruise Stalked Joe DiMaggio



The late Yankee slugger Joe DiMaggio was once stalked by Tom Cruise.

"He'd show up at baseball-signing shows and wait for Joe to come out," says the source.


"One time, he waited outside a restaurant for him for three hours. [DiMaggio] called him 'a short little guy.' He didn't like it. He felt like he was stalking him."


Cruise's spokesman didn't respond by deadline. And in fairness to Cruise, who J.J. Abrams said would come to his house alone on his motorcycle at midnight to convince him to direct "Mission: Impossible III," the actor could have been pursuing DiMaggio to try getting the rights to his story. But Joltin' Joe, who died in 1999 at 84, felt there was madness in his method.


"Joe said to me, 'This guy is following me around everywhere I go,'" says our spy. "'Next time, I'm going to call the cops.'"

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