NEW YORK -- The ball Barry Bonds hit for his record-breaking

756th home run will be branded with an asterisk and sent to the

Baseball Hall of Fame.

Fashion designer Marc Ecko, who bought the ball in an online

auction, set up a Web site for fans to vote on the ball's fate, and

Wednesday announced the decision to brand it won out over the other

options -- sending it to Cooperstown unblemished or launching it

into space.

Ecko said he believed the vote to brand the ball showed people

thought "this was shrouded in a chapter of baseball history that

wasn't necessarily the clearest it could be."

Ecko, whom Bonds called "an idiot'' last week, had the winning

bid Sept. 15 in the online auction for the ball that Bonds hit Aug.

7 to break Hank Aaron's record of 755 home runs. The final selling

price was $752,467, well above most predictions that assumed Bonds'

status as a lightning rod for the steroids debate in baseball would

depress the value.