The BASEBALL RELIQUARY Inc.
MOTHER TERESA BASEBALLS
In April of 2000, the FBI announced that 26
Southern Californians had been indicted in what the law
enforcement agency called the largest, most lucrative,
and most brazen fraud ring ever busted for trafficking
in phony sports and celebrity autographs and
memorabilia. In a case dubbed “Operation Bullpen,”
the FBI seized merchandise in California, Nevada, and
other states that was designed to be sold for ten
million dollars, including forged autographs of Marilyn
Monroe, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, the Marx Brothers,
and Albert Einstein. The operation even produced a box
of one dozen baseballs bearing the signature of Mother
Teresa. “I think that pretty much says it all,” said
William Gore, special agent overseeing the FBI case.
U.S. Attorney General Gregory Vaga seemed particularly
appalled by the sacrilegious implications of the Mother
Teresa forgeries, as he told reporters, “To so crassly
exploit Mother Teresa, a woman the world has anointed as
a saint and who spent a life of heroic virtue, is
unconscionable.”
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