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Imagine giving up $1.8 million for a couple of Shohei Ohtani autographs?

That’s what Major League Baseball wanted the lucky fan who was able to come away with the star Dodgers player’s historic 50/50 baseball a few weeks ago to do. Instead, Chris Belanski left the ballpark with the ball as MLB officials were furious that they were unable to make a deal with him to get the historic ball back. 

It turns out that it was absolutely the right move, as the ball is now priced at over $1.8 million at auction with 11 more days left!

That’s right, let this be a lesson for ANYONE who finds themselves in a situation where they may have caught or retrieved a milestone piece of sports memorabilia – DO NOT GIVE IT BACK if you want to potentially make some lifechanging money from it!

Shohei Ohtani may not have just set the record for being the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single year, but he may also break the sports memorabilia market for most expensive game-used baseball. At $1.8 million via Goldin Auctions, the Ohtani ball has surpassed Aaron Judge’s 62nd home run ball and now is only behind Mark McGwire’s 70th home run baseball that he hit in 1998 that sold for $3 million.

Ohtani’s ball could very well beat McGwire’s.

WHO ACTUALLY CAUGHT THE BALL?

As I’ve exclusively reported here at OutKick, MLB and the teams do everything they possibly can to try and force the fans to return a historic baseball. You have to realize that there are literally people who work for the team whose job is to retrieve the ball, and if they don’t, they end up looking like fools, so you can imagine the things they say to try and intimidate fans to trade the ball in for usually what amounts to a couple of autographs from the player.

Fortunately for Belanski, he was able to trust his gut (and his wallet) by turning down the Dodgers’ offer. However, he’s not in the clear just yet. Multiple lawsuits have since been filed against Belanski as well as Goldin Auctions in an attempt to halt the bidding process, as 18-year-old Max Matus claims that he had the Ohtani baseball first before Belanski “wrongfully and forcefully” obtained possession of the ball from him. In other words, Mathis is arguing that Belanski stole the ball from him during the chaotic skirmish that occurred in the stadium stands.

A judge has set an emergency court hearing for October 10th to rule on Matus’s claim although it appears that Belenski should be fine and it will only be a matter of time until he cashes in the Ohtani 50/50 baseball for millions of dollars.

Well done, sir!