Souvenir from record hit reaches Cooperstown branded with asterisk.
Barry Bonds’ best baseball’s been branded. But it still made its way into the Cooperstown, N.Y. Hall of Fame after much controversy. Following urban entrepreneur Marc Ecko’s $752,467 purchase of the souvenir from Bonds’ Major League record-breaking 756th home run in a Web auction, Ecko let the public vote to brand the ball with an asterisk, symbolizing Bonds’ widely suspected steroid use. After a back-and-forth this week between the Hall and Ecko, who Bonds called an “idiot,” over whether the ball would be a loan or gift, the Hall’s spokesman Brad Horn announces: “We are very happy to receive the baseball as a donation, and not as a loan. We look forward to adding this ball to our permanent collections.” Bonds has threatened to boycott the Hall of Fame. He was indicted on perjury charges for allegedly lying to a grand jury, in connection with his alleged use of steroids.

A silly game lands a mother in jail
The mother of a 10-year-old boy and a teenage girl has been arrested after allegedly driving a car on which the two youths were “car-surfing” before being thrown off and seriously injured. The names of the victims were not released because of their age. Police say that the boy, who is in critical condition at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, is suffering from serious head trauma; the teen was treated and is now in good condition, police said. “It seems ludicrous that anybody would do that,” said Sgt. Marcus Booth of the San Antonio Police Department. “There’s plenty of room in the car, so we don’t know why she did it. It really looks like poor judgment.” The mother was allegedly driving the car while the youngsters stood on the hood. When she hit the brakes, the kids went flying and rolled into the street, police said. Police say they do not know exactly how fast the woman was driving and noted that she did not appear to be under the influence of alcohol.