There is drama surrounding the rightful owner of Shohei Ohtani’s historic 50th home run ball.
Last week, the Dodgers’ slugger made history when he became the first MLB player ever to hit 50 homers and steal 50 bases in one season.
The fan who caught the home run ball has since put it up for auction, but a lawsuit has now muddied the waters about the rightful owner of the ball.
The web site Cllct reports that Max Matus, an 18-year-old, has filed a suit against Goldin auctions, plus Chris Belanski, the man who left loanDepot Stadium in Miami with the ball, as well as Belanski’s friend Kelvin Ramirez who is helping him with marketing.
In the suit, Matus claims that the ball was taken from him via civil battery and that he should be declared the rightful owner.
Matus’ suit says that he “successfully grabbed” the home run ball in his left hand before “a muscular, older man” proceeded to trap his arm “in between his legs and wrangled the 50/50 Ball out of Max’s left hand,” according to ESPN.
Video of the home run showed one fan just missing out on the catch as a scrum below him developed in the “Recess Sports Lounge,” a quasi-night club near the left field stands.
Matus filed for an injunction to stop the auction, which is set to start at $500,000 on Friday, with a “buy it now” price of $4.5 million.
Goldin told Cllct that it plans to go forward with the auction.
“We are aware of the case that has been filed,” a spokesperson for the company told the outlet. “Having reviewed the allegations and images included in the lawsuit, and publicly available video from the game, Goldin plans to go live with the auction of the Ohtani 50-50 ball. While Goldin has been named as a party in the case, there are no allegations of wrongdoing by the company.”
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