A 160,000 percent return on a $5 investment wasn’t enough for Richard Arndt, who decided yesterday that an $800,000 bid was too low for Hank Aaron’s historic 755th home-run ball.
In 1976, Arndt was fired from his job as a Milwaukee Brewers groundskeeper when he walked out of County Stadium with the ball.
”I just couldn’t believe it,” Arndt, 52, said. ”I was totally shocked, especially after learning they had deducted $5 from my paycheck to cover the cost of the ball.”
Yesterday was Arndt’s chance at financial payback, when his Hank Aaron ball was put up for auction.
But Arndt decided the top $800,000 bid wasn’t enough. Neither he nor the auction house would say what he would have accepted.
He took his ball and headed back to Albuquerque, N.M., where he works as an office-furniture salesman – and as a part-time groundskeeper for the Albuquerque Dukes, a Triple-A Los Angeles Dodgers farm team.
Before the auction, Arndt was emotional about selling Hammerin’ Hank’s historic ball.
”I just kissed the ball goodbye,” he said. ”I never thought this day would come.”
Arndt said that if the Brewers had been a little nicer to him, he would have gladly turned over the ball to Aaron – whose July 20, 1976, homer set the all-time career home-run record.
”I was prepared to give the ball to Hank Aaron, but when they told me that I couldn’t make the presentation to him, I decided to take the ball home,” Arndt said.
Over the years, Arndt received several lucrative offers for the record-setting round-tripper, but ”It was such a part of me that I never really actively tried to market the ball for gain,” said Arndt, a fanatic Brewers fan.
The hoopla surrounding the epic Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home-run battle finally convinced him it was time to part with his treasure.
”It was just time for me,” he said. ”I had the ball long enough.”