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The home run baseball that Shohei Ohtani hit into the stands to complete his incredible 50-50 season has been sold at auction for the highest price of any ball from any sport in history.
The Los Angeles Dodgers star became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season last month when he passed the 50 home run mark during a 20-4 win over the Miami Marlins.
The Japanese phenom smacked three home runs during that September 19 victory and has since helped the Dodgers reach the World Series, where they wil face the New York Yankees in a best-of-seven set starting on Friday evening.
Ohtani’s 50th home run ball has now been sold for an incredible $4.39m, said New Jersey-based auction house Goldin. It broke the record for most expensive baseball previously held by Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball from the 1998 season, which sold for $3m in 1999.
“We received bids from around the world, a testament to the significance of this iconic collectible and Ohtani’s impact on sports, and I’m thrilled for the winning bidder,” Ken Goldin, the founder and CEO of Goldin said in a statement.
The auction opened on September 27 with a starting bid of $500,000 and closed just after midnight on Wednesday, although Goldin said it could not disclose any information about the winning bidder.
It has been overshadowed by a legal battle surrounding ownership of the historic ball. Christian Zacek walked out of Miami’s LoanDepot Park with the ball after gaining possession in the left-field stands but Max Matus and Joseph Davidov each claim in separate lawsuits that they grabbed the ball first.
Matus’s lawsuit claims that the Florida resident — who was celebrating his 18th birthday — gained possession of the Ohtani ball before Zacek took it away, while Davidov claims in his suit that he was able to “firmly and completely grab the ball in his left hand while it was on the ground, successfully obtaining possession of the 50-50 ball.”
All the people involved in the lawsuit agreed that the auction should continue.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press