If one recalls the halycon days of September 19, 2024, Shohei Ohtani established the first 50/50 club with aplomb against the Miami Marlins at the sociological nightmare that is loanDepot Park.
One might recall that a scrum broke out where the historic home run ball landed, and, to settle that dispute in the most American fashion, a lawsuit broke out.
That Florida civil lawsuit is still plodding along, and we will continue to monitor it in case something interesting happens.
What is interesting about this case is that we know precisely who owns the ball now and where it physically is. The parties in the underlying lawsuit are fighting over the record proceeds of the auction. The new owner in Taiwan will continue to show the ball to its heart’s content regardless of who prevails in court.
This update was prompted by an article in The Athletic about how Goldin Auctions convinced the feuding parties to allow the sale to proceed. Spoiler alert: it was greed.
“Everybody’s suing everybody,” [Ken] Goldin said. “My auction is running. I am going full steam ahead like a bull in a China shop. I’m on TV. I’m promoting the ball. I’ve got people from Japan flying over to do interviews with me. … The bidding for the ball at that point was maybe $1.5 million, maybe $2 million. Now people are starting to get out there like ‘Could the auction be halted?’”
“I said to them (the two parties fighting for a claim of the ball), ‘Do either of you want to keep this ball or do you want to own it so you can make the most money possible?’ And luckily, they said that they want to make the most money possible by selling the ball,” Goldin said….
….“As a businessman, you are just using logic,” Goldin said. “I just felt that they needed to hear from me as the auctioneer, as the guy who is the ‘King of Collectibles’ that you are screwing yourself if you do not let this ball sell now. The court’s going to decide what your ownership is, you’re not going to win the case arguing with me. So let’s put your arguments aside. Let me get the most money possible for the ball.”
The case cited by Goldin was the infamous Barry Bonds’ 70th home run ball, which delayed its sale due to the now-iconic case between Patrick Hayashi and Alex Popov. The Bonds’ ball sold for $450,000, which was far less than the $3.005 million Mark McGwire’s 70th home run ball sold for without ownership controversy.
We will continue to monitor this case for updates and report as they become available.
