[RichardSimon]

Originally Posted by MVSNYC

Great points, Mike. Not too many people knew who McFarlane (or his company) was prior to him buying the ball.

PS- I was sitting in the front row at that live auction, back then it was exhilarating, and that ball and auction was all the buzz.

I was working for Guernseys at that auction. I worked with consignors and cataloged all the items. I spent some time with the owner of the ball.
There was a lot of speculation about how high the ball would go.
I knew the lines of credit that a few people had and I knew it would go for over $1 million.
On auction night I was in charge of the phone bank.
We had a couple of friends of employees who came in for the night to help and I was handing out assignments. A young lady was sitting next to my seat and I gave her the assignment for only one bidder as she appeared to be quite nervous.
I sat next to her, handling six bidders. Guess who wound up talking to Todd .
She handled it like a pro.
Todd was bidding against some individuals from a tie making company as the bidding went past $1 million. The tie company sold individually designed ties (designed by athletes) and wanted to put a coupon in one of their tie boxes. The coupon was good for the baseball. But they were hemming and hawing over every bid. Todd just banged out his bids through the young woman on the phone. I knew he would not stop and that he would get the ball.
It was quite a night.