Getty Image
The baseball that Shohei Ohtani hit for his 50th home run of the season, making him the first to accomplish that feat along with 50 stolen bases in a single season, is causing even more drama.
After having arguably the greatest single game by a player in Major League Baseball history, an 18-year-old fan claimed that a much older fan ripped the 50/50 home run baseball out of his hands after he grabbed it first.
That older fan, Chris Belanski, reportedly turned down an offer of $300,000 from the Dodgers for the return of the historic baseball that very night.
Less than a week later, the 18-year-old fan, Max Matus, filed a lawsuit against the older man, suing to prevent an auction of the baseball from taking place.
That apparently did not work because a couple of days later Shohei Ohtani’s 50/50 home run ball received a bid of $1.2 million during its second day up for auction.
A Miami-Dade County judge did rule that while the auction of the baseball can carry on, the auction house, Goldin Auctions, “will not sell, conceal or transfer” it until his final ruling is rendered.
Now, another fan, Joseph Davidov, is making the claim the he should have an ownership interest in the baseball.
According to The Athletic, Davidov claims in his lawsuit that he was “able to firmly and completely grab the ball in his left hand while it was on the ground.”
He then claims “an unknown fan wrongfully jumped over the railing, jumped onto (Davidov) and (Davidov’s) arm and attacked (Davidov) causing the 50/50 Ball to come loose and roll into the hands of Defendant Chris Belanski.”
Davidov says he “would have retained control and possession of the 50/50 Ball if were not for the assault of the unknown fan who jumped onto” him.
A fourth fan, Kelvin Ramirez, who attended the game with Belanski, is also named as a defendant in both Matus’ lawsuit as well as Davidov’s. Ramirez also claims some form of ownership of the historic baseball.
Goldin Auctions changed the end date of the Shohei Ohtani 50/50 ball from Oct. 16 to Oct. 22, but not because of the lawsuits, but because of “the volume of international interest in this item,” a company spokesperson claimed.