In 1986, a young Wall Street trader named Jeff Kranz went to a New York Mets game and saw Barry Bonds hit a baseball for the first time.
Bonds, then a 21-year-old rookie with the Pittsburgh Pirates, was best known as the son of Bobby Bonds, a former All-Star outfielder who had retired five years earlier. Kranz was enthralled with the junior Bonds, convinced that his career would exceed his father’s.
He quickly became Bonds’ most ardent admirer—and a collector of Bonds memorabilia.
Over the next 15 years, as Bonds became baseball’s biggest star, Kranz accumulated 166 of Bonds’ bats, hundreds of signed balls, 66 pairs of cleats, and a bloodstained jersey.
