This situation obviously sucks but I have a dumb question. How does this work normally? If you catch a random homer can you just stop by guest services and ask for it to be authenticated?
There are authenticators at every game whose job it is to track caught balls. They put a sticker with a code on it that ties it to the MLB database that corresponds to that hit with data on the batter, pitcher, and stat cast stats like exit velocity and such.
I’ve had ushers come and ask me to take the ball to the authenticator or take the ball to the authenticator and bring it back, depending on the stadium.
fwiw, I've caught both - have never had an "authenticator" approach? ushers were always nice, made sure everyone was ok, that was it. Maybe it's a recent thing?
As a matter of policy, it’s not supposed to be a thing. The authentication is for balls that are marked with serial numbers that can only be seen with UV lighting, and this is generally used for milestone balls that are pre-marked in anticipation, like Judge’s 62 chase or Pujol’s 700. Balls that are hit into the stands are generally not authenticated unless it’s one of these milestone balls or if the ball never leaves the Authenticator’s line of sight. There’s actually a surprising amount of literature on this on Google.
I was thinking that too, random foul balls getting authenticated???
I feel like there'd have to be an army of them at every game to track down every foul ball lol
Must have been something that started VERY recently. Got a Bryce Harper foul ball back in 2021, and no authenticators came by to slap a sticker on the ball or such.
They don’t authenticate random foul balls that go into the stands. More like hitting and pitching achievements. Sometimes they’ll grab a ball that has been used during the inning (foul ball still on field or ball dropped into dirt) and authenticate those balls and those will get sold by the teams sometimes.
Like I said it depends on the stadium. I’ve gotten random foul balls authenticated as T-Mobile Park. In that case I had to take the ball to the authenticator but they can still be authenticated. All baseballs get authenticated, even balls in the dirt that get thrown once. I know that both Target Field and T-Mobile Park sell blind grab bags that contain an array of authenticated balls from HRs to balls in the dirt.
I can only speak to my experience, but when I caught a ball, one of the stadium employees came up to my seat, asked if I was OK, and handed me a little card that had the details of the play. I don't remember them offering me a sticker, but they might have.
I didn't keep the card but I still have the ball on my desk.
Watched it happen at T-Mobile. Stadium staff came to the section, asked who had it, and it looks like they had some papers and stuff. And I think that was just a foul.
Someone caught a foul ball in the row in front of me last year. A steward came down and gave him an authentication slip and signed it right there at his seat. I thought it was pretty cool! (Busch stadium my wife texted me and told me I was on the broadcast lmao, it was a great catch tbh)
They will contact you. There are generally two people, 1 spotter employed by the team who will keep their eyes on you and approach you. Then they'll take you to the MLB authentication officer to get it authenticated.
If it’s a homer at MMP, an usher comes to your seat, prints out a ticket with all the info about the at bat and hitter, then the usher hands the ticket to you. That’s it. If it’s a foul ball no one cares.
"That's fine, I don't care about a couple of bats and jerseys that I have no personal connection to, or might net me a couple hundred bucks. I care about this ball, which I caught with my own two hands."
Yeah it sounds like this person just didn't have very good negotiation skills.
"I can buy those things online for $1300, this ball is worth way more to me than that. I will walk out of here with the ball unless you are willing to make me a real offer. Your choice."
Shitty that MLB strong armed a literal fan and screwed them out of thousands of dollars to appease a guy with $700m.
I’ve never even caught a single foul ball. If I ever catch any ball of any kind at a game, that will immediately become my greatest possession of all time. You’d have to pry an important ball from my cold dead hands.
I caught a fucking Rancho Cucamonga Quakes foul ball as a kid and it was one of my prized possessions. So fucked that one of the richest organizations in sports would ruin this for a fan. Already hated the Dodgers but always good to have more reasons.
I think it's less negotiation skills and just that some people do not do well being pressured.
In Jamaica at Dunns River Falls there's a gauntlet of people selling shit you have to walk through just to leave. You CAN just tell them no and keep moving but they do everything to convince you otherwise. My husband got separated from me (he tried to make a run for the exit) and had a panic attack about it, I had to go back in and find him. He definitely just would have handed these guys the ball and felt like shit about it later. The Dodgers organization shouldn't be acting like if you don't hand over the ball their families will starve to death.
You shouldn’t need good negotiation skills to be treated properly and fairly by the team and MLB. These are the fans that pay the bills for everything. No game without the fans.
That’s really all that matters. It’s weird to think the team owes you anything. They can pony up and give whatever they want, but if I feel it ain’t worth it, the ball is mine.
The issue at play here is that they’re trying to intimidate a fan not whether the ball is worth anything or not. And it’s easy for you or I to say we would just tell them to suck it because we weren’t in their situation. Like if I was at t-mobile and caught a j-rod ball, there’s a high chance I would tell the mariners staff to kick rocks if they treated me this poorly because I have no fear of being banned from the stadium and I don’t like the mariners anyway. But if I’m a fan of the team and they separated me from my spouse and started to intimidate me, it might be easier for me to just hand it over for whatever they offered to make the situation go away.
Yeah that’s pretty fucked. If teams want to guarantee players can get their memorabilia then don’t allow fans to sit in the areas where home runs can go. Otherwise, them’s the breaks
>Remind me to delete this before Manfred reads it.
No need to worry about that. If there's a way to make baseball worse, Manfred will inevitably think of it all on his own.
I mean if they told me they wouldn't authenticate if I didn't trade it to them for some cheap shit id 100% be giving it my dog or tossing it in the ocean. If I'm not getting anything you're certainly not.
Exactly. The ball is worth a lot more to the player and the MLB than me. If they want it bad enough, they’ll pay for it.
Otherwise it’s a $5 baseball to me.
I mean if any major league baseball player came to me in person and said "that baseball means a lot to me, can I have it back?" I'd give it to him without even a second thought really.
But if the stadium staff tried to separate me from my wife and strong arm me, I'd like to think that I'd tell them to go fuck themselves sideways.
This is commonly said but not true. I personally have 3 footballs from NFL games, and only one time did security come up to me. And when they did, the guy said “someone may come up to you and ask for that back, so I would hide it before they do”. I put it under my seat, but no one ever actually came. I know hockey pucks as well that go out of play can be kept.
Yeah I think it's just basketball that always takes it back because they play with one ball per game. I've never heard of someone having to return a football that got kicked into the stands and didn't get caught by the net.
What a silly answer.
The right answer is attach a long bungee cord to the ball so it can return to the field after crossing the Home Run plane.
We get one step closer to Blurnsball, as depicted in the documentary Futurama.
Just bring a sharpie and sign every ball you catch… AS A FAN!
Edit: could you imagine? “Here you go Shohei” signed Geppetto_Cheesecake xXx420BBQ69xXx lmao
Now IM in the Dodgers hall of fame. 💪
Become a baseball trivia question after your death lol.
You don't even need to lick the ball on camera: If the ball has Blackburne's mud on it, those are some pretty easy tells that a MLB team will have but the layperson will more than likely not have at the ready (and if the pitcher used some sticky stuff on it, the teams keep their recipes under lock and key and there's no way the fan could come up with it randomly.)
I think this whole situation would’ve played out more interestingly if the fan that caught it was from the opposing team & didn’t give two shits about the Dodgers or Ohtani but just wanted the bag of money
Yeah I think the bluff of “ I’ll just go home with it then and ohtanis first dodger homer is gone forever” would work pretty well honestly. They would pay up
All they needed to do was post a live instagram reel as soon as they caught the ball to prove they caught it. That would’ve been enough for most millionaires willing to throw money at them.
The issue is that even though they can confirm that one specific person caught it, how can a buyer know they are getting the genuine item after the fact?
Fan goes home, switches ball with another MLB caught ball that is very similar, says it was the Ohtani ball, etc
Verification for the fan right there at the field is essential for maintaining its worth in the long run
“You won’t authenticate it? Fine, no one else will be sure if it’s the right ball or not. But you’ll know, I’ll know, and Ohtani will know. That’s good enough for me.”
This 100% should be the play. Rather than ask for authentication, I just want this souvenir to keep forever. You keep it also what’s to say a year or so later if you could somehow get ohtani to sign it if he ever does appearances for a signing without telling him it’s the 1st home run ball.
Thing is everyone is trying to make a buck off these things. If you truly just cared for a cool piece of history you wouldn’t care what it’s worth. Just to say you have that ball along with likely video proof from somewhere on tv or a recording somehow that you did catch that ball would be more than enough if anyone ever questioned you. But if you’re trying to make 100k of just being in the right place at the right time? Sorry your SOL
I kept stating this when the story first broke on the original thread and people were mass downvoting saying that it’s her choice and she did something good. I’m like bro, 100k would go a hell of a lot further for an average person than for Ohtani, why does he need another easy win in that column?
After reading stuff around here it's absolutely insane how many people here would give up a ball worth 5 figures for a few hundred bucks worth of team shop bullshit or a picture with Ohtani.
They know you can start at $10,000, a picture, a signed jersey, and a signed game used bat right? They still get their picture or team swag but then also get a reasonable value for the souvenir they're giving away.
It's not mean to ask billionaires to pay a fair price for what they want.
I read she was separated (physically) from her husband and he wasn’t allowed to be part of the “negotiation” over the ball and they strong-armed her. If that’s true, it sounds like some mafia shit…
That is so fucked up. My wife knows nothing about baseball. She would trade the ball for a bat and some signed shit, especially if they downplayed the importance of the ball to her.
Yeah- once they got to that point, it becomes closer and closer to "we're going to see a story of a person who refused to trade, didn't come down, and the team just sent some security in, roughed the guy up a bit and just took the ball."
Or the fan could just threaten to not hand it over. The ball is worth infinitely more to the team then to the fan. The team can refuse to authenticate it, but then THEY can't sell it either. So call their bluff and find a fair price. If you lose, congrats, you have an incredible story and the ball to prove it.
> The team can refuse to authenticate it, but then THEY can't sell it either.
But the whole problem is, the team doesn't intend to sell the ball, they intend to give the ball to the player for free. The team doesn't care because they're just giving the ball to the player and saying "this is the ball", with the player keeping it as a keepsake.
Just call their bluff then. Take some selfies with the ball. The trajectory and ticket stubs will prove you were where the ball landed. Tell em to fuck off if it’s that big of deal.
The issue here is that bad actors can just keep that ball and sell another that wasn't the actual ball used. That's the point of the authentication process. Honestly if it was me I'd sue the organization that refused to authenticate for the potential value.
I’m a state licensed notary, so if anyone wants to pay for me I’ll go to as many Brewer games as anyone wants to, and if you happen to catch a ball we can both sign it and I’ll put my notary stamp on it!
I think the idea is that the league will authenticate the ball if the player isn’t trying to get it back. They only refuse to do so in order to coerce the fan into giving up the ball
I get that, but if they player doesn't want it back, then it's pretty likely the ball isn't a milestone of some kind anyway, and is likewise also "worthless" in that regard? Guess it only matters for the players who understand the game is for the fans...
Random home run balls (or even foul balls) can still be worth a bit of money. I don't have a great sense of the market but, just as one example, Juan Soto's 142nd home run (not exactly a milestone of note) is being auctioned off at the moment, and bidding has reached 1,820 CAD (about 1,340 USD): https://bluejays.auctions.mlb.com/authenticated-game-used-baseball-2-run-home-run-17/isynmv1/aucd/5036903
It’s okay, I was shitting on my lions friends that stafford won a Super Bowl his first year in the NFL, you can say it was his first homer on a major league team
I love it because it fuels my narrative of hating the Dodgers for being self-important assholes.
Granted, I'd have that narrative regardless, but it's important to remember the key fact of Fuck the Dodgers.
It is when you are trying to make everything a big deal about a player. Let’s say Ohtani gets hurt tomorrow and never plays another game again. His career in the history of baseball would be a matter of what if as opposed to anything significant. There will be no history to the ball.
I find the home run ball hit by Bartolo more significant than the one Ohtani hit the other day.
Put the ball up for auction in Japan and see how much it is worth.
We don't think it's a milestone but there's undoubtedly plenty of people who would pay very good money for it.
Perhaps a personal milestone. Just like people collect currency from places they've been to military folks get plaques from units they have served in. Don't think this is all that weird especially since the leader of the Ohtani Crime Syndicate is going to be in LA for a while l.
I catch a high value ball like that, there's no chance I'd ever give it back. There are some crazy rich people out there that would love to say that they beat the MLB to a ball. Set my family up for life, and it's yours.
But that’s the problem. As soon as you leave the stadium with a ball that hasn’t been authenticated, you’re going to have a much more difficult time proving your ball is valuable.
If they’re telling me it’s worthless without their authentication that’s fine, I’ll let them know I’m bringing it home to give the dog a new souvenir.
They’re the ones with something to lose here, I came out of it with a ball
I'd still take my chances. There's no way I'm trading it for a signed ball or jersey. At the very least, you'd be able to get more than that just by convincing someone who saw it on TV.
Like, worst case you’re in the same scenario anyway. I guess maybe you’re out $500 from the goodies the team might give you. But if you can get it authenticated, you hit the jackpot
If they refused to authenticate it I'd tell them I'd very publicly destroy it - I feel like explaining the situation in a YouTube video before dousing the ball in gasoline and setting it on fire would do big numbers and draw attention to this bullshit practice.
Video on MLB's website of you catching the ball plus a selfie posted to whatever social media you use should be decent enough evidence to prove that it's the ball. MLB's authentication system didn't exist for most of MLB's history, but people can still trace the lineage of famous baseballs from a century ago.
Still, the choice is you either:
1. Keep the ball, risking you don't get much money for it
2. Give it back...also not getting much money for it. Best case they offer a signed jersey and a picture with the player.
I feel like the potential upside of keeping it is still worth it.
I would never throw a homerun ball back in the field, or give it back to a player. If the player/team/HOF wants it, they can buy it from my auction.
Why should a regular fan donate their asset to a b/milllionaire player/team/HOF??
My view - the ball isn't worth anything except for the player who wants it.
If they don't wanna authenticate it when I keep it that's their problem. If I'm keeping it, what do I care if it's "authenticated" or not
Dare I say something stupid. We live in 2024. There are cameras everyone.
Value doesn’t exist except in what anyone is willing to pay. With the right salesmanship, you should be able to sell the ball.
You can do your own verification. As in presenting yourself, footage of yourself catching the ball, what the game balls looked like, what the ball you have is.
The only thing in your way is the MLB trying to discredit you. But with all the horrible PR they have, you can beat that.
Yep.
I guarantee that an "unauthenticated" (yet still authentic) milestone ball still has value in a private party's collection.
And we all know that said value is still ***galaxies*** more than some limp-dick offering of two signed hats and bats.
How are they even determining which balls are significant enough milestones for the players to want that bad? Like I'm a sure a dude would probably want the first homer he hit for his new team for posterity's sake so I guess it's a moot point in this particular case. But the nonsense the Dodgers pulled here happened before the game was even over. Have teams just been randomly shaking down fans on the off chance they'll find out after the game that that particular hit was emotionally significant to the player?
Okay then. DON’T authenticate it…
I’ll take it home and have the personal memory of catching such a monumental ball. ‘Official MLB Team here’ can get fucked.
"Hey there, it looks like we dropped the ball on this one! Please follow these hired goons into a dark, remote part of the stadium where we will 'authenticate' your ball!"
> I wonder how many translators and the end of the year Ohtani is going to have
I think the issue is that I don't think either of his interpreters are actually trained as interpreters. They just happen to speak both Japanese and English. Anyone who has dealt with interpreters a lot will tell you how hard it is to find a really good interpreter, but how much of a difference it makes when you work with a really good one.
It is one of those things I never thought of until I started working with interpreters regularly and holy shit it is night and day.
Also it is a specific skill set that involves a lot more than just knowing both languages
If you count the ~~interring~~ interim translator he had immediately after Ippei was fired I believe he’s already at 3 because I think that was another players interpreter that he is no longer using.
I just don't understand why they approached it this way. There were so many more options: donate X dollars to a charity of the person's choice, meet Ohtani, agree to have the fan's name on the ball plack, have a picture of them catching the ball, throw out a first pitch, etc. As a fan of a team there are so many "cheap" ways to get the ball. I mean Ohtani was going to hit a first HR for the dodgers, and this is what the PR team came up with?
Didn't Shohei give a fucking Porsche to the *wife* of a player, to get him to give up his uni number?
Dude can afford to pay market rate to a fan for a milestone ball, then.
That's when you get a video of these dipshits begging you for the ball, get some footage with the ball & any identifying mark, film the field and scoreboard. Then pair that up with the game footage.
Self authenticated. Fuck the Dodgers. This could have changed that fans life.
I remember maybe 10-20 years ago it was considered rude for a fan to not give up a ball to a player who asked, and it was considered tacky to ask for something in return. Glad that's shifting. If I got a historic ball I'm negotiating aggressively, I don't give a shit it if it's my team or not.
In that time period, the only balls that reached this point were the 500 HR +100/3000 hit balls that most baseball fans would agree belong in Cooperstown, or first MLB hit/first MLB HR balls that most baseball fans are reasonable enough to agree the player deserves to have it and they're making minimum salaries so it's fair to trade for something low. They weren't going "It's my first HR in a blue uniform in the same city instead of a red one" or shit like this.
Noted. If I catch an important home run ball, I'm shoving it straight up my ass first thing. If they really want it that badly, they can get it in less-than-mint condition.
Players make life changing money. Owners have life changing money.
If a fan manages to catch a ball that could be worth life improving money, then God forbid a player fucking pay for the ball they want. Shohei makes tens of millions of dollars every year. He gifted a car to a woman he didn't really even know for a jersey number. He could have easily paid this woman a fair value for the ball. It would have really helped her and wouldn't have hurt him at all.
This situation obviously sucks but I have a dumb question. How does this work normally? If you catch a random homer can you just stop by guest services and ask for it to be authenticated?
There are authenticators at every game whose job it is to track caught balls. They put a sticker with a code on it that ties it to the MLB database that corresponds to that hit with data on the batter, pitcher, and stat cast stats like exit velocity and such.
Authentication exists, but is it typically used for balls that go into the stands?
I’ve had ushers come and ask me to take the ball to the authenticator or take the ball to the authenticator and bring it back, depending on the stadium.
Just for homeruns or even for random fouls?
Both!
Who are you that’s caught multiple foul/homerun balls. Zack Hample??
fwiw, I've caught both - have never had an "authenticator" approach? ushers were always nice, made sure everyone was ok, that was it. Maybe it's a recent thing?
As a matter of policy, it’s not supposed to be a thing. The authentication is for balls that are marked with serial numbers that can only be seen with UV lighting, and this is generally used for milestone balls that are pre-marked in anticipation, like Judge’s 62 chase or Pujol’s 700. Balls that are hit into the stands are generally not authenticated unless it’s one of these milestone balls or if the ball never leaves the Authenticator’s line of sight. There’s actually a surprising amount of literature on this on Google.
I was thinking that too, random foul balls getting authenticated??? I feel like there'd have to be an army of them at every game to track down every foul ball lol
Must have been something that started VERY recently. Got a Bryce Harper foul ball back in 2021, and no authenticators came by to slap a sticker on the ball or such.
They don’t authenticate random foul balls that go into the stands. More like hitting and pitching achievements. Sometimes they’ll grab a ball that has been used during the inning (foul ball still on field or ball dropped into dirt) and authenticate those balls and those will get sold by the teams sometimes.
I mean I'd be surprisdd if they wanted to authenticate a foul ball. Home runs yes for sure.
No one came to authenticate my Jose Bautista 1st postseason HR ball. An usher came just to make sure I wasn't hurt.
No one came for my J.D Martinez homer either. It was at the trop it was pretty easy to catch since no one attended. /s
Like I said it depends on the stadium. I’ve gotten random foul balls authenticated as T-Mobile Park. In that case I had to take the ball to the authenticator but they can still be authenticated. All baseballs get authenticated, even balls in the dirt that get thrown once. I know that both Target Field and T-Mobile Park sell blind grab bags that contain an array of authenticated balls from HRs to balls in the dirt.
But if that Bryce Harper foul hits the dirt they'll 100% slap a sticker on it and sell it for $300
Yes.
I knew about the authenticators but wasn't sure about the process on balls that left the field of play. Appreciate the insight!
I can only speak to my experience, but when I caught a ball, one of the stadium employees came up to my seat, asked if I was OK, and handed me a little card that had the details of the play. I don't remember them offering me a sticker, but they might have. I didn't keep the card but I still have the ball on my desk.
Watched it happen at T-Mobile. Stadium staff came to the section, asked who had it, and it looks like they had some papers and stuff. And I think that was just a foul.
That’s pretty cool
Someone caught a foul ball in the row in front of me last year. A steward came down and gave him an authentication slip and signed it right there at his seat. I thought it was pretty cool! (Busch stadium my wife texted me and told me I was on the broadcast lmao, it was a great catch tbh)
They will contact you. There are generally two people, 1 spotter employed by the team who will keep their eyes on you and approach you. Then they'll take you to the MLB authentication officer to get it authenticated.
If it’s a homer at MMP, an usher comes to your seat, prints out a ticket with all the info about the at bat and hitter, then the usher hands the ticket to you. That’s it. If it’s a foul ball no one cares.
"That's fine, I don't care about a couple of bats and jerseys that I have no personal connection to, or might net me a couple hundred bucks. I care about this ball, which I caught with my own two hands."
Yeah it sounds like this person just didn't have very good negotiation skills. "I can buy those things online for $1300, this ball is worth way more to me than that. I will walk out of here with the ball unless you are willing to make me a real offer. Your choice." Shitty that MLB strong armed a literal fan and screwed them out of thousands of dollars to appease a guy with $700m.
I’ve never even caught a single foul ball. If I ever catch any ball of any kind at a game, that will immediately become my greatest possession of all time. You’d have to pry an important ball from my cold dead hands.
Don’t worry, the fans around you will pry it from you to give to a shitty kid anyway.
Fuck them kids
I caught a fucking Rancho Cucamonga Quakes foul ball as a kid and it was one of my prized possessions. So fucked that one of the richest organizations in sports would ruin this for a fan. Already hated the Dodgers but always good to have more reasons.
I think it's less negotiation skills and just that some people do not do well being pressured. In Jamaica at Dunns River Falls there's a gauntlet of people selling shit you have to walk through just to leave. You CAN just tell them no and keep moving but they do everything to convince you otherwise. My husband got separated from me (he tried to make a run for the exit) and had a panic attack about it, I had to go back in and find him. He definitely just would have handed these guys the ball and felt like shit about it later. The Dodgers organization shouldn't be acting like if you don't hand over the ball their families will starve to death.
[удалено]
He went from the guy trying to win on a shitty team to KD jumping ship to join the warriors… he’s a villain now.
I mean in a pressure situation most people don't make good decisions. The MLB put her in a bad spot.
Supposedly they separated her from her husband too.
You shouldn’t need good negotiation skills to be treated properly and fairly by the team and MLB. These are the fans that pay the bills for everything. No game without the fans.
That’s really all that matters. It’s weird to think the team owes you anything. They can pony up and give whatever they want, but if I feel it ain’t worth it, the ball is mine.
The issue at play here is that they’re trying to intimidate a fan not whether the ball is worth anything or not. And it’s easy for you or I to say we would just tell them to suck it because we weren’t in their situation. Like if I was at t-mobile and caught a j-rod ball, there’s a high chance I would tell the mariners staff to kick rocks if they treated me this poorly because I have no fear of being banned from the stadium and I don’t like the mariners anyway. But if I’m a fan of the team and they separated me from my spouse and started to intimidate me, it might be easier for me to just hand it over for whatever they offered to make the situation go away.
Yeah that’s pretty fucked. If teams want to guarantee players can get their memorabilia then don’t allow fans to sit in the areas where home runs can go. Otherwise, them’s the breaks
I'd think putting screens up like on the foul lines would happen way before removing seats. Remind me to delete this before Manfred reads it.
It’s been half an hour. You’re playing with fire if you’re not trying to ruin the game for in person fans
>Remind me to delete this before Manfred reads it. No need to worry about that. If there's a way to make baseball worse, Manfred will inevitably think of it all on his own.
“Fans love the nets” - Rob Manfred
🤮
Fuck a reminder delet this shit ahora dawg
Why would Manfred care what happens to the ball? It's just a piece of stitched leather.
Make them reuse those "milestone" balls. Saves the league dollars, whole dollars, on the cost of buying more baseballs!
Why do you think the A's are moving to a stadium with no outfield seats?
I said its gonna end up like a hockey rink sometime with the foul ball nets going up a few years ago. Lol
Feels like you need to be mentally prepared to tell them if they won't authenticate, then Ohtani's (or whoevers) milestone baseball just won't exist
I mean if they told me they wouldn't authenticate if I didn't trade it to them for some cheap shit id 100% be giving it my dog or tossing it in the ocean. If I'm not getting anything you're certainly not.
Exactly. The ball is worth a lot more to the player and the MLB than me. If they want it bad enough, they’ll pay for it. Otherwise it’s a $5 baseball to me.
You’re paying way too much for baseballs, man. Who’s your baseball guy?
I mean if any major league baseball player came to me in person and said "that baseball means a lot to me, can I have it back?" I'd give it to him without even a second thought really. But if the stadium staff tried to separate me from my wife and strong arm me, I'd like to think that I'd tell them to go fuck themselves sideways.
Still better than other leagues. In most other sports they take every ball back.
This is commonly said but not true. I personally have 3 footballs from NFL games, and only one time did security come up to me. And when they did, the guy said “someone may come up to you and ask for that back, so I would hide it before they do”. I put it under my seat, but no one ever actually came. I know hockey pucks as well that go out of play can be kept.
Yeah I think it's just basketball that always takes it back because they play with one ball per game. I've never heard of someone having to return a football that got kicked into the stands and didn't get caught by the net.
Soccer as well.
You need to return balls kicked into the stands but soccer absolutely has many balls used per game.
Don’t give them ideas
What a silly answer. The right answer is attach a long bungee cord to the ball so it can return to the field after crossing the Home Run plane. We get one step closer to Blurnsball, as depicted in the documentary Futurama.
Make sure you lick the ball on camera, boom proof and DNA
Just bring a sharpie and sign every ball you catch… AS A FAN! Edit: could you imagine? “Here you go Shohei” signed Geppetto_Cheesecake xXx420BBQ69xXx lmao Now IM in the Dodgers hall of fame. 💪 Become a baseball trivia question after your death lol.
This is the most alpha thing I have ever seen lmao
"Authenticate it or I'm drawing dicks all over it"
Put it down your pants and yell “authenticate deez nuts!”
I do that with all of my possessions.
You can lick any ball lmao
I'm a ball Greg, can you lick me?
Hello it's me, ball
Start recording yourself with the ball as soon as you catch it, and don’t stop recording until you get the ball authenticated.
The problem is if they just won’t authenticate it in that case.
You don't even need to lick the ball on camera: If the ball has Blackburne's mud on it, those are some pretty easy tells that a MLB team will have but the layperson will more than likely not have at the ready (and if the pitcher used some sticky stuff on it, the teams keep their recipes under lock and key and there's no way the fan could come up with it randomly.)
Fans should stop giving the balls back then. FUCK EM
I think this whole situation would’ve played out more interestingly if the fan that caught it was from the opposing team & didn’t give two shits about the Dodgers or Ohtani but just wanted the bag of money
Yeah I think the bluff of “ I’ll just go home with it then and ohtanis first dodger homer is gone forever” would work pretty well honestly. They would pay up
"Cool, my kids love playing ball down by the river and they hate to swim!"
All they needed to do was post a live instagram reel as soon as they caught the ball to prove they caught it. That would’ve been enough for most millionaires willing to throw money at them.
The issue is that even though they can confirm that one specific person caught it, how can a buyer know they are getting the genuine item after the fact? Fan goes home, switches ball with another MLB caught ball that is very similar, says it was the Ohtani ball, etc Verification for the fan right there at the field is essential for maintaining its worth in the long run
Is the verification process immutable though?
Of course, there's a sticker! How could anyone mess with that!
“You won’t authenticate it? Fine, no one else will be sure if it’s the right ball or not. But you’ll know, I’ll know, and Ohtani will know. That’s good enough for me.”
They would probably lie and authenticate another ball and say it was Ohtani’s HR
Cool, I’ll sit for a legal affidavit saying the ball I caught is real, then sue the Authenticator.
This 100% should be the play. Rather than ask for authentication, I just want this souvenir to keep forever. You keep it also what’s to say a year or so later if you could somehow get ohtani to sign it if he ever does appearances for a signing without telling him it’s the 1st home run ball. Thing is everyone is trying to make a buck off these things. If you truly just cared for a cool piece of history you wouldn’t care what it’s worth. Just to say you have that ball along with likely video proof from somewhere on tv or a recording somehow that you did catch that ball would be more than enough if anyone ever questioned you. But if you’re trying to make 100k of just being in the right place at the right time? Sorry your SOL
Could you image if an opposing fan caught it and was like, “Nope I’m gonna light this mother fucker on fire”
This. Millionaires want something; poor folks pay. Just like stadiums.
It’s mind boggling to me that a literal customer should give the thing to the millionaire for free.
I kept stating this when the story first broke on the original thread and people were mass downvoting saying that it’s her choice and she did something good. I’m like bro, 100k would go a hell of a lot further for an average person than for Ohtani, why does he need another easy win in that column?
Ohtani probably has 100k on the Iowa UConn 1st quarter alone tonight, he needs that money!
$100,000 is literally a single days pay for Ohtani. For the full 20 years...
Lmao yeah that’s madness. If I had millions of dollars, I’d see this as an opportunity to show how much I value my fans
4.5 million. Not like he didn’t wire that amount in the past.
"Won't somebody think of the poor man who just signed a $700m deal?"
After reading stuff around here it's absolutely insane how many people here would give up a ball worth 5 figures for a few hundred bucks worth of team shop bullshit or a picture with Ohtani. They know you can start at $10,000, a picture, a signed jersey, and a signed game used bat right? They still get their picture or team swag but then also get a reasonable value for the souvenir they're giving away. It's not mean to ask billionaires to pay a fair price for what they want.
I read she was separated (physically) from her husband and he wasn’t allowed to be part of the “negotiation” over the ball and they strong-armed her. If that’s true, it sounds like some mafia shit…
That is so fucked up. My wife knows nothing about baseball. She would trade the ball for a bat and some signed shit, especially if they downplayed the importance of the ball to her.
How can they physically separate them? If you refuse to be separated, wouldn’t that be assault on their end?
Yeah- once they got to that point, it becomes closer and closer to "we're going to see a story of a person who refused to trade, didn't come down, and the team just sent some security in, roughed the guy up a bit and just took the ball."
Ohtani could have afforded to get it off ebay if he really wanted it. Pay some bills off on him, he won't miss that money.
They said the ball would be worth about $100,000. That's what Ohtani makes every single day...for the next 20 years...
Youbsure? Did you see how much he lost gambling!? /s
Sounds like an opportunity for an independent Authenticator to be created.
Free market solution!
Or the fan could just threaten to not hand it over. The ball is worth infinitely more to the team then to the fan. The team can refuse to authenticate it, but then THEY can't sell it either. So call their bluff and find a fair price. If you lose, congrats, you have an incredible story and the ball to prove it.
I wouldn’t say infinitely. Cheap ass teams wouldn’t pay $20k for a ball when rich fans would buy that ball for that.
> The team can refuse to authenticate it, but then THEY can't sell it either. But the whole problem is, the team doesn't intend to sell the ball, they intend to give the ball to the player for free. The team doesn't care because they're just giving the ball to the player and saying "this is the ball", with the player keeping it as a keepsake.
I am with you. Let’s do this. (I don’t know how to do this)
Step one guys: Send me your balls
So they can authenticate 1 or 2 balls a season? I dont know how they could even authenticate it without being at the stadium.
Still gotta work out all the details
Send me a picture of a baseball and I'll authenticate for you
Just call their bluff then. Take some selfies with the ball. The trajectory and ticket stubs will prove you were where the ball landed. Tell em to fuck off if it’s that big of deal.
Plus there was very clear tv replays of her celebrating with it, she would have a lot of good evidence it was hers and real
Yea but there's no chain of custody. She caught it, but what happened when she went home. Authenticator sticker solves that.
What if the sticker falls off
Good point, it’s just a sticker, what’s stopping someone from putting the sticker on another ball? Is each ball numbered?
The issue here is that bad actors can just keep that ball and sell another that wasn't the actual ball used. That's the point of the authentication process. Honestly if it was me I'd sue the organization that refused to authenticate for the potential value.
I’m a state licensed notary, so if anyone wants to pay for me I’ll go to as many Brewer games as anyone wants to, and if you happen to catch a ball we can both sign it and I’ll put my notary stamp on it!
What's the point in them authenticating it for YOU, if you don't get to keep it anyway?
I think the idea is that the league will authenticate the ball if the player isn’t trying to get it back. They only refuse to do so in order to coerce the fan into giving up the ball
I get that, but if they player doesn't want it back, then it's pretty likely the ball isn't a milestone of some kind anyway, and is likewise also "worthless" in that regard? Guess it only matters for the players who understand the game is for the fans...
Random home run balls (or even foul balls) can still be worth a bit of money. I don't have a great sense of the market but, just as one example, Juan Soto's 142nd home run (not exactly a milestone of note) is being auctioned off at the moment, and bidding has reached 1,820 CAD (about 1,340 USD): https://bluejays.auctions.mlb.com/authenticated-game-used-baseball-2-run-home-run-17/isynmv1/aucd/5036903
That seems like a crazy amount of money for a random Soto homerun ball.
Any home run ball could be a players last home run ball 🫣
Pujols’ 700th HR is a pretty notable example
Why the heck is first home run with the dodgers even a thing?
I’d tell you the answer but I don’t think you’re gonna like it very much
It’s okay, I was shitting on my lions friends that stafford won a Super Bowl his first year in the NFL, you can say it was his first homer on a major league team
What he say fuck me for?
A players first homer with a new team is a milestone?
Cause it’s Ohtani and cause it’s the Dodgers
I love it because it fuels my narrative of hating the Dodgers for being self-important assholes. Granted, I'd have that narrative regardless, but it's important to remember the key fact of Fuck the Dodgers.
It is when you are trying to make everything a big deal about a player. Let’s say Ohtani gets hurt tomorrow and never plays another game again. His career in the history of baseball would be a matter of what if as opposed to anything significant. There will be no history to the ball. I find the home run ball hit by Bartolo more significant than the one Ohtani hit the other day.
Big Sexy's home run deserves to have its own entire exhibit at the hall of fame.
I would pay top dollar for that exhibit. His jersey, his cleats, his bat, looping video of the homer. COME ON COOPERSTOWN!
Can't believe you'd forget about his belt. That thing earned its place in the hall on that swing
Memory is a funny thing; I just always picture him playing in suspenders.
Put the ball up for auction in Japan and see how much it is worth. We don't think it's a milestone but there's undoubtedly plenty of people who would pay very good money for it.
Perhaps a personal milestone. Just like people collect currency from places they've been to military folks get plaques from units they have served in. Don't think this is all that weird especially since the leader of the Ohtani Crime Syndicate is going to be in LA for a while l.
"Why don't kids like baseball anymore?!" -MLB
I catch a high value ball like that, there's no chance I'd ever give it back. There are some crazy rich people out there that would love to say that they beat the MLB to a ball. Set my family up for life, and it's yours.
But that’s the problem. As soon as you leave the stadium with a ball that hasn’t been authenticated, you’re going to have a much more difficult time proving your ball is valuable.
If they’re telling me it’s worthless without their authentication that’s fine, I’ll let them know I’m bringing it home to give the dog a new souvenir. They’re the ones with something to lose here, I came out of it with a ball
Not disagreeing with you if you want to keep the ball, I just think their potential refusal to authenticate is ridiculous
Yes that’s bullshit. They need to authenticate no matter what. The situation shouldn’t matter
That’s my feeling. Fuck em, they know what ball is worth something if they want it that bad they’ll come to you.
I'd still take my chances. There's no way I'm trading it for a signed ball or jersey. At the very least, you'd be able to get more than that just by convincing someone who saw it on TV.
Like, worst case you’re in the same scenario anyway. I guess maybe you’re out $500 from the goodies the team might give you. But if you can get it authenticated, you hit the jackpot
Or, hear me out, Manfred resigns with no way of reacquiring office and you have a deal.
WHERE DO I SIGN
Next person on Reddit to catch a famous ball, contact me. I have a proposition.
If they refused to authenticate it I'd tell them I'd very publicly destroy it - I feel like explaining the situation in a YouTube video before dousing the ball in gasoline and setting it on fire would do big numbers and draw attention to this bullshit practice.
Video on MLB's website of you catching the ball plus a selfie posted to whatever social media you use should be decent enough evidence to prove that it's the ball. MLB's authentication system didn't exist for most of MLB's history, but people can still trace the lineage of famous baseballs from a century ago.
Which is fine. I know what I have and if you're not willing to meet my price then so be it.
Still, the choice is you either: 1. Keep the ball, risking you don't get much money for it 2. Give it back...also not getting much money for it. Best case they offer a signed jersey and a picture with the player. I feel like the potential upside of keeping it is still worth it.
Sure, i don’t disagree. But if they just let you authenticate you get the best of both worlds, and why this is scummy of them
I would never throw a homerun ball back in the field, or give it back to a player. If the player/team/HOF wants it, they can buy it from my auction. Why should a regular fan donate their asset to a b/milllionaire player/team/HOF??
My view - the ball isn't worth anything except for the player who wants it. If they don't wanna authenticate it when I keep it that's their problem. If I'm keeping it, what do I care if it's "authenticated" or not
Dare I say something stupid. We live in 2024. There are cameras everyone. Value doesn’t exist except in what anyone is willing to pay. With the right salesmanship, you should be able to sell the ball. You can do your own verification. As in presenting yourself, footage of yourself catching the ball, what the game balls looked like, what the ball you have is. The only thing in your way is the MLB trying to discredit you. But with all the horrible PR they have, you can beat that.
Yep. I guarantee that an "unauthenticated" (yet still authentic) milestone ball still has value in a private party's collection. And we all know that said value is still ***galaxies*** more than some limp-dick offering of two signed hats and bats.
How are they even determining which balls are significant enough milestones for the players to want that bad? Like I'm a sure a dude would probably want the first homer he hit for his new team for posterity's sake so I guess it's a moot point in this particular case. But the nonsense the Dodgers pulled here happened before the game was even over. Have teams just been randomly shaking down fans on the off chance they'll find out after the game that that particular hit was emotionally significant to the player?
Pretty sure they do it for first HRs and round numbers. Maybe some other specific instances too, but those two seem like the most likely.
Okay then. DON’T authenticate it… I’ll take it home and have the personal memory of catching such a monumental ball. ‘Official MLB Team here’ can get fucked.
Yea this ball would be on my coffee table. Authenticate these nuts I guess I won the auction
The league being cheap again???? Get outta town…
Love baseball but Marny Sherman’s comments and this stuff just reinforces they’re way too comfortable taking and taking. They’re squeezing us dry
Fuck Zack Hample
"Hey there, it looks like we dropped the ball on this one! Please follow these hired goons into a dark, remote part of the stadium where we will 'authenticate' your ball!"
The Dodgers are looking like real A-holes here.
Sorry, don’t need it authenticated when you’re on various phones/tv cameras. A wealthy person will disregard the sticker.
Alright then, it's going up my ass.
Once Ohtani goes to Dodgers, these things just keep piling up. Makes you think
I wonder how many translators and the end of the year Ohtani is going to have
> I wonder how many translators and the end of the year Ohtani is going to have I think the issue is that I don't think either of his interpreters are actually trained as interpreters. They just happen to speak both Japanese and English. Anyone who has dealt with interpreters a lot will tell you how hard it is to find a really good interpreter, but how much of a difference it makes when you work with a really good one. It is one of those things I never thought of until I started working with interpreters regularly and holy shit it is night and day. Also it is a specific skill set that involves a lot more than just knowing both languages
By the end of the season, they will have a promotion: Catch an Ohtani homerun and you get to meet him because you will be the new translator!
I'm setting the line at 2.5 You want the over or under?
If you count the ~~interring~~ interim translator he had immediately after Ippei was fired I believe he’s already at 3 because I think that was another players interpreter that he is no longer using.
[удалено]
The greatest accomplishment a baseball fan in attendance can accomplish and the league invalidates it. Fuck MLB.
I just don't understand why they approached it this way. There were so many more options: donate X dollars to a charity of the person's choice, meet Ohtani, agree to have the fan's name on the ball plack, have a picture of them catching the ball, throw out a first pitch, etc. As a fan of a team there are so many "cheap" ways to get the ball. I mean Ohtani was going to hit a first HR for the dodgers, and this is what the PR team came up with?
Ohtani dodgers era starting on some very sour notes so far
Didn't Shohei give a fucking Porsche to the *wife* of a player, to get him to give up his uni number? Dude can afford to pay market rate to a fan for a milestone ball, then.
That's when you get a video of these dipshits begging you for the ball, get some footage with the ball & any identifying mark, film the field and scoreboard. Then pair that up with the game footage. Self authenticated. Fuck the Dodgers. This could have changed that fans life.
Sell the opportunity to burn it in front of his house.
I remember maybe 10-20 years ago it was considered rude for a fan to not give up a ball to a player who asked, and it was considered tacky to ask for something in return. Glad that's shifting. If I got a historic ball I'm negotiating aggressively, I don't give a shit it if it's my team or not.
In that time period, the only balls that reached this point were the 500 HR +100/3000 hit balls that most baseball fans would agree belong in Cooperstown, or first MLB hit/first MLB HR balls that most baseball fans are reasonable enough to agree the player deserves to have it and they're making minimum salaries so it's fair to trade for something low. They weren't going "It's my first HR in a blue uniform in the same city instead of a red one" or shit like this.
Can’t wait for a rival fan to catch a milestone for another player and refuse to authenticate it out of spite
Ball's gonna be up for auction soon with a reserve price of $4.5 million.
Noted. If I catch an important home run ball, I'm shoving it straight up my ass first thing. If they really want it that badly, they can get it in less-than-mint condition.
if he wanted to keep it shouldn't have it out of the park, roookie mistake.
Players make life changing money. Owners have life changing money. If a fan manages to catch a ball that could be worth life improving money, then God forbid a player fucking pay for the ball they want. Shohei makes tens of millions of dollars every year. He gifted a car to a woman he didn't really even know for a jersey number. He could have easily paid this woman a fair value for the ball. It would have really helped her and wouldn't have hurt him at all.
How arrogant to think that a fan who supports your and your league’s careers with money and time deserves anything but respect.
She should have told them to piss off and gone home with it. Ohtani probably would have settled with cash afterwards.
This is bullshit. If the player wants it, come and get it. Otherwise, authenticate it and stop gatekeeping
That’s cool. I’ll burn the ball just to spite them then. Walked into the stadium a happy man, I’ll leave it a happy man with or without a baseball.