SHOHEI Ohtani’s historic 50th home run ball from this season is set to hit auction, but one person is trying to stop the sale.
The historic home run ball marked the first 50 home run 50 stolen base season in MLB history, and fans scrambled to pick it up after a hit.
Shohei Ohtani hit his 50th home run this month to join the 50 homer 50 stolen base club[/caption]
Fans scrambled to catch the extremely-valuable baseball[/caption]
The Ohtani home run ball will likely become one of the most valuable pieces of sports memorabilia after its sale, with bids starting later this week.
Ken Goldin revealed that his auction house will handle the sale with bids starting at $500,000.
The ball can also be purchased immediately at any point up until October 9 for a price of $4.5 million.
If bidding crosses $3 million before October 9, the $4.5 million buy-now option will disappear.
While the ball is set to fetch hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars, 18-year-old Max Matus is suing in an attempt to halt the sale.
According to cllct’s Darren Rovell, Matus believes he is the true owner of the baseball, claiming that he had full control of the ball before Chris Belanski stole it from him.
Matus is “seeking injunctive relief” to stop the sale of the ball and establish himself as the rightful owner.
An emergency hearing has been scheduled for Thursday to settle the matter.
Despite the lawsuit, Goldin Auctions said it plans to proceed with taking bids on Friday.
“We are aware of the case that has been filed,” a Goldin spokesperson said.
“Having reviewed the allegations and images included in the lawsuit, and publicly available video from the game, Goldin plans to go live with the auction of the Ohtani 50-50 ball.
“While Goldin has been named as a party in the case, there are no allegations of wrongdoing by the company.”
However, the suit says Matus was able to “firmly grab the ball in his left hand, successfully obtaining possession of the 50-50 ball.”
Belanski remained anonymous before the lawsuit, and was claimed to have “wrapped his legs around Max’s arm and used his hands to wrangle the ball out of Max’s hands, stealing the ball for himself.”
There was a video taken from Ohtani’s home run that shows the tussle for the ball that features Matus and Belanski.
The video suggests that there wasn’t any control of the ball before Belanski came up with possession of it.
MLB All-Star starters 2024
American League
C: Adley Rutschman (Baltimore Orioles)
1B: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (Toronto Blue Jays)
2B: Marcus Semien (Texas Rangers)
3B: José Ramírez (Cleveland Guardians)
SS: Gunnar Henderson (Baltimore Orioles)
OF: Aaron Judge (New York Yankees)
OF: Steven Kwan (Cleveland Guardians)
OF: Juan Soto (New York Yankees)
DH: Yordan Alvarez (Houston Astros)
National League
C: William Contreras (Milwaukee Brewers)
1B: Bryce Harper (Philadelphia Phillies)
2B: Ketel Marte (Arizona Diamondbacks)
3B: Alec Bohm (Philadelphia Phillies)
SS: Trea Turner (Philadelphia Phillies)
OF: Jurickson Profar (San Diego Padres)
OF: Teoscar Hernández (Los Angeles Dodgers)
OF: Christian Yelich (Milwaukee Brewers)
DH: Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers)
The lawsuit provided still photos from the video that also don’t have enough clarity to suggest Matus had the ball in his hand.
“He’s not an aggressive person,” father Greg told cllct.
“He was a kid at a baseball game trying to catch a ball.”
It will likely be difficult for any legal action to be upheld in this case, and the sale of the 50-50 ball will likely go ahead without any issue.
Max Matus claims he is the rightful owner of the baseball[/caption]
