Bidding Starts Friday at Goldin for Historic 50-50 Piece
The historic home run ball that cemented Shohei Ohtani as the first-ever MLB player to join the 50-50 club has surfaced.
It will be going to auction through Goldin later this week.
After the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar hit his 50th home run of the season on Sept. 19 in Miami, the man who came out of a scrum with the ball got it authenticated by MLB then completely vanished. On Sept. 23, Goldin founder and CEO Ken Goldin posted a video of him receiving a secret package to his auction house late that night. The contents of that package were revealed on Wednesday afternoon.
“Ohtani is truly one-of-a-kind, and the 50-50 record may be his crowning achievement. We’re honored to bring this iconic item to collectors,” Goldin said in a press release. “This is a piece of baseball history that fans and historians around the world will remember for decades to come.”
Entering the Sept. 19 game vs. the Marlins, Ohtani needed two homers and one stolen base to reach the 50-50 plateau. After picking up a stolen base in the top of the first inning, Ohtani hit his second home run of the night in the seventh — No. 50.
Ohtani finished his record-setting evening 6-for-6 with three home runs, two doubles, and 10 runs batted in.
According to Goldin, the historic ball came directly from the fan who caught it, in a game that could be considered the single best offensive game ever played.
The opening bid for this 1-of-1 piece of sports memorabilia is $500,000, but potential buyers will have a chance to purchase the baseball outright for $4.5 million exclusively between Sept. 27 to Oct. 9. However, if bidding reaches $3 million prior to Oct. 9, the option to purchase the ball privately will no longer be available. At that point, interested parties must compete and bid for the baseball.
The auction will open on Friday, Sept. 27 at noon ET and close on Oct. 16. Extended bidding that day will begin at 10 p.m. ET.
