McGwire's 70th HR To Be Sold

The chase for Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball is in full swing -- with the winner to be decided in an auction.

The historic ball will be sold early next month by the New York auction house Guernsey's.

Philip Ozersky, a 26-year-old research lab scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, retrieved the ball Sept. 27 as McGwire's St. Louis Cardinals ended the regular season against Montreal.

"They know how to pull off an auction of this size," Michael Freedland, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer who represents Ozersky, told The New York Times. "And they're going to do an online auction simultaneously."

Three collectors, represented by St. Louis attorney Alan Cohen, have offered $1 million for the ball, and Freedland estimated Ozersky has received more than 500 inquiries. The ball has been displayed at the Cardinals' Hall of Fame for about two months.

The Times said Guernsey's also will auction other available homer balls hit by McGwire and the Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa.

McGwire's 62nd home run ball -- the homer that broke Roger Maris' 1961 record -- is at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The newspaper said Sosa, who had 66 homers, is scheduled to appear at a news conference Tuesday in Manhattan to announce the availability of some home run balls and to confirm his intention to sign his most important one.

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