If you are on this page, it is because you are either a historian of the game of baseball, or you were curious what a piece of history like Shohei Ohtani’s 50/50 homerun ball would go for in an open market. For context, Shohei Ohtani started his own club becoming the first MLB player in history to hit 50 homeruns and steal 50 bases in the same season. A few other players like Bonds and Acuna Jr. have made similar history, hitting 40 homeruns and stealing 80 bases. But no one has done what Ohtani did against Miami on September 19th. One (and possibly two) lucky fans got their hands on that 50th homerun ball and the one who came away with it, Chris Belansky, wisely took it to auction.
It is customary when something historic like this happens, for the team to come out and offer merchandise, gift cards and tickets to the fan in exchange for the ball. These trade talks usually favor the club who basically loses nothing by giving away some extra jerseys they have laying around and some vouchers for a couple drinks in exchange for a piece of baseball history, so fans have smartened up and have been invoking their fifth amendment right if you will by not giving the ball up and waiting to see what it is worth in an open market.
Belanski was lucky enough to end up with the ball after it left the ballpark. And after he left the ballpark, he took it to Goldin Auctions for them to put it up and see what kind of interest it would draw. If you would like to make a bid on the ball, follow this link. I will caution you, however, you may need to take the spending limit off your credit card before making a bid that could win: https://goldin.co/item/sept-19-2024-shohei-ohtani-becomes-first-member-of-50-50-club-actual-553vh1?queryId=eyJxdWVyeUlkIjoiNGM0NzcwZTMzMmM3M2JkYmZkZDhiYTM2MTcxZWMxYjIiLCJjYXJkSW5kZXgiOjB9
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