Hall Of Famers Plead Guilty To Hiding Autograph Income
The Duke came back to Brooklyn, not in glory but in greed.
Baseball’s memorabilia market, symbol of a sport mired in money, snared two of its all-time heroes Thursday when Hall of Famers Duke Snider and Willie McCovey pleaded guilty to tax evasion.
“I got caught. I’m very sorry about it. I hope to get a second chance from a lot of my fans,” Snider said outside the federal courthouse. “We have choices to make in our lives and I chose to make the wrong choice.”
Snider and McCovey joined an expanding lineup of convicted tax cheats in a sport already weighed down by drug problems and lingering resentment from a strike that wiped out the World Series.
The convictions were the government’s latest blow in a crackdown on unreported income from baseball card shows, publicity events, autograph signings and memorabilia shows that became million-dollar businesses in the 1980s. Snider and McCovey admitted to not reporting income from memorabilia shows.
It was especially poignant that Snider’s public embarrassment came in Brooklyn, where in the 1950s he was the local favorite in the streetcorner debate over which center fielder was the best in New York.
The crowd outside the courthouse included an old man wearing a worn blue Brooklyn Dodgers cap.
Snider, 68, of Fallbrook, Calif., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit tax fraud. Appearing before U.S. District Judge Edward R. Korman, he admitted not reporting $100,000 in cash from card shows and memorabilia appearances from 1984-93. He faces up to six months in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the loss to the government.
His lawyer, Michael Premisler, said he doubted Snider would have to go to jail. No sentencing date was set.
McCovey, leaning on a cane following recent knee surgery, appeared first before Korman.
McCovey, of Kentfield, Calif., pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion, admitting that he failed to declare $41,800 in income in 1989, a year in which he made $87,000, and $69,800 in baseball memorabilia income received from 1988-90.
He faces up to seven months in prison and a $250,000 fine.