Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run could be worth more than $500,000, expert says
Shohei Ohtani inducted one lucky fan into the six-figure club.
That’s how much money one expert said the person who caught Ohtani’s historic 50-50 club home run baseball on Thursday could sell it for.
“Just an incredible piece of history,” Dillon Kohler of SCP Auctions told NBC Local. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s $300,000-plus, maybe even over half a million dollars.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers star became the first player in Major League Baseball history with 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season. And when he hit the historic home run just over the Dodgers bullpen at loanDepot Park in Miami, he sent a piece of baseball memorabilia and a lottery ticket into the leftfield stands.
That created a scrum, with one fan who will forever regret not bringing a glove to the game appearing to miss the ball by mere inches.
The fan who ended up with the ball has not yet been publicly identified or announced an intention to sell.
“I would say strike while the iron’s hot,” Kohler said. “I think that there’s collectors and fans alike out there that would love to have this ball, have that in their possession for their collection. Now is the time to get that on the market as soon as possible.”
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Ohtani entered the game needing two home runs and one stolen base to become the first member of the 50-50 club. He stole his 50th base of the season after hitting a single in the first inning and then homered in the sixth and seventh innings. Only five players in MLB history have recorded 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases in a single season, making the accomplishment unprecedented and the baseball lucrative.
Other valuable baseballs that made their way into the stands in recent years included Albert Pujols’ 700th career home run in 2022 that sold at auction for $360,000 and Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run ball hit later that year that was auctioned for $1.5 million.
Kohler said auction is the recommended selling strategy for Ohtani’s home run ball, which he said should have been hologrammed by MLB for authentication purposes prior to his at-bat before it reached the hands of its new wealthy owner.
“The sky’s the limit for this baseball,” Kohler said. “Incredible piece of history. And we’ll see where it goes. Hopefully one lucky fan has a new golden ticket here.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
