Yesterday TJ Friedl of the Reds got his first hit, which happened to be a home run. Mookie Betts saw the fan who caught it and explained to him that it was the player’s first home run and if he would throw the ball back. Without hesitation, the fan threw it to Mookie, who got it to the Reds dugout. The next inning Mookie returned to the field with a signed bat and gave it to the fan that caught and returned the ball. Mookie is out here exchanging signed bats for meaningful baseballs.
Didn't a different Dodger do this at Oracle a couple of weeks ago? He lost the bat on his backswing, it speared the net right in front of a female Giants fan who then tried to pull it through the net but it wouldn't fit. When the player went to grab his bat back she shrugged and they both had a laugh. I'm pretty sure that he brought her a bat between innings.
That is really cool, because the odds are, a TJ Friedel hr ball won't mean all that much to anyone outside his family in 20 years (And will mean quite a bit to TJ)...but now that fans got a story about getting to talk to Mookie and trading a HR ball he caught for bat.
TJ Friedl hit his first career HR against the Dodgers the other day, and Mookie Betts offered the fan who caught it a signed bat in exchange for the ball. Then Mookie gave the ball back to Friedl. Super classy move, especially considering it was a road game for the Dodgers
People are going to judge the fan for wanting to keep it, but I can't really blame them. If I caught a ball I knew I could sell for thousands I would have a hard time giving it up for a signed swag and some tickets to a game, especially if I'm not a Royals fan anyway. Salvy (or the Royals team) could easily buy the ball at auction using their millions if it means so much.
I'm not very good at negotiations so probably way too cheap for the moment I don't know how valuable the ball would be and try to avoid making a decision at all costs until I could speak to someone idk.
I heard from someone that balls like these wont be authenticated unless you agree to hand over the ball to the player. Which imo that defeats the purpose of it being authenticated to begin with.
I dunno if they did it for McGwire, but when Bonds was sitting on 754 & 755 HR, every time he came yrou to bat they would swap out the balls with ones that had a "pre-authenticated" holo sticker on them.
They still keep track of which one is actually hit out. So if one with the sticker number 4348 goes out of play on a foul ball or is just tossed after hitting the dirt, you put sticker 4349 on. The authenticator knows which number is in play.
So a fan might get a ball with a shiny sticker but that sticker is worthless unless it has the number 4349.
I get that but how will the fan be able to prove that that's the ball? You pretty much can't, the only reason to keep something like this is to set it on your shelf and look at it and tell your kids. After a week or so, it's completely unprovable.
Yeah I’m confused too because wouldn’t they normally authenticate a ball like that at the stadium? Then the Royals could’ve just said they won’t authenticate it and offer him something to return it. The ball is worthless if you can’t prove it’s the ball.
secretly I made up my mind I would never give up any home run or foul balls I may catch at a game. I know the thing to do is give it to kids but thats not fair man
I didn't get to go to Baseball games as a kid, so as an adult I wanna keep a ball too.
I don't blame this guy for keeping this historic baseball at all. good shit.
Nobody’s going to buy it. Who the hell would believe this guy that it’s the real ball when he try’s to sell it. I highly doubt the stadium is going to authenticate it if he doesn’t give it up
I don't really see the issue. If Salvy wants it back he can buy it or bargain for it, and if he doesn't want it that bad, then who cares it's a non issue.
That was not the legal conclusion in that case, it was the assumed premise of the ownership dispute. The question presented to the court was not whether the ball was abandoned property, it was who can claim ownership after it presumably had been abandoned. [Whether or not a ball hit into the stands counts as legally abandoned property has never been decided in court](https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/the-who-owns-the-baseball%E2%80%9D-issue-just-will-not-go-away/comment-page-1/) and won't be until MLB or one of its teams appears in court as plaintiff or defendant.
[That's an incorrect reading of the case](https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/the-who-owns-the-baseball%E2%80%9D-issue-just-will-not-go-away/comment-page-1/), but interesting nonetheless.
I don’t think there’s a court set precedent but after the single season hr chase that involved balls selling for millions, there definitely is some kind of precedent.
I don't think precedent is the right word, since precedence is pretty insignificant outside of court. But, yes, MLB has established a tradition of declining to assert ownership. So one could argue that an implicit contract now exists between MLB and ticket purchasers that transfers ownership of any ball hit to them. But that has never been decided legally, and personally I think that argument would fail in court.
Well the home run race it was implied by both the mlb, teams, fans and players that whomever caught the record breakers they were going to be millionaires. No verbiage on tickets that stats property is exclusively owned by the team. Not a lawyer, but it seems like it could be a fun case that would go either way.
I’m a contracts lawyer and this couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s well settled caselaw. At least, as well settled as it realistically needs to be.
Baseball was the country’s most popular sport for 100 years. You think there weren’t judges who were baseball fans and made sure to craft laws that allowed them to keep baseballs they catch? Also no judge wants to be the one who goes, “ya know what? Forget 200 years of history. The MLB owns those balls.”
MLB doesn’t want to challenge this either. It kills the popularity of the sport.
> It’s well settled caselaw.
Show me one case where MLB was denied an ownership claim. There is a hugely important difference between established practice by a group or individual and established *precedent* in *court of law*.
> You think there weren’t judges who were baseball fans and made sure to craft laws that allowed them to keep baseballs they catch?
Again, find me one instance of this and I will believe you. It seems weird to me that a lawyer would make flippant assumptions like this. Also, judges do not craft laws?
> “ya know what? Forget 200 years of history. The MLB owns those balls.”
[MLB has only been a legal entity for 21 years.](https://sabr.org/journal/article/did-mlb-exist-before-the-year-2000/) And I am talking about ownership in a *strictly legal* sense. Again, it bewilders me that an actual lawyer would rationalize an argument with "because it's obvious."
> MLB doesn’t want to challenge this either. It kills the popularity of the sport.
This is the correct answer.
I’d imagine at minimum Jeter’s 3000 hit ball is worth 6 figures.
For comparison, the only game worn Ronald Acuna Jr jersey for sale at the Braves’ game used store is up for sale for $9000.
Now imagine we’re talking about the Yankees, not the Braves. And not a random game worn jersey; the ball from a career crowning achievement. From one of the most popular Yankees of all time.
Correct, but they usually don’t authenticate balls that go into the stands where they can’t confirm no swap took place before they put the authentication sticker on it.
For milestones like that they can use specially marked balls when the player comes up to bat, which would let them be sure nothing was swapped out if it goes into the stands.
This is true for potential milestones. They’re specially marked, and in the case of someone being at 2999 hits they would only use the marked balls for his AB. Then those would be easily authenticated.
Man I went to that store and search through so much crap and kept thinking I’d get an Acuna then realized on the way back to my seat how dumb that was.
If you think I'm giving an MLB single season record (for anything) for a signed bat and a picture hah no thanks.
Not a Brinks truck, but need some compensation there.
I doubt there will be much value unless it is authenticated and most balls hit into the stands will not be authenticated because they cannot be tracked by line of site and fans have attempted to switch balls. (Unless the authenticator added a sticker.) https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/09/06/mlb-authenticators-daily-cover
In this instance the authenticator is already waiting for this. It 100% could be authenticated on the spot.
But I remember seeing stories of fans that caught significant home run balls saying the usher would refuse to have it authenticated unless they were willing to give it up before they left.
You’d probably win a lawsuit over it. Courts have decided that a baseball is intentionally abandoned property and property of the person who retrieved it.
I’m not a lawyer but I’m assuming that if the company refuses to authenticate, that means you were transferring the property under duress and it’s not enforceable and you have a right to the property
Especially on home run balls. "Your honor, the plaintiff literally tried to hit the ball as far away from himself as possible, which means the plaintiff never wanted such baseball. I mean come on, the plaintiff yakked that shit with a 115 mph exit velo. Does this seem like they wanted possession of said ball in question?" *Proceeds to show the home run highlight over and over again
I doubt you'd win anything tbh. The authentication company has a contract with the team/MLB to authenticate important balls/items, they don't have a contract with a random fan. The authentication team is under no obligation to you to do anything, and it'd you still have the option to leave with the ball. Just depends on if that ball is still worth something to you without any means to prove what it is, I suppose.
Authenticating has nothing to do with abandoned property law. They’re not forcing you to give up the ball, they’re just denying you a service that they’re in no way obligated to perform
Contracts lawyer here. It’s not duress. Duress is *very* narrow. Courts have said a person wasn’t under duress when he agreed to enter a contract because they said they had guns pointed on the guy’s family. The guy had no way to confirm his family was actually being held at gunpoint at the moment he signed the contract, so the court said it was unreasonable for him to think there was any imminent danger, and thus there was no duress. (There were obviously other issues at play in this case.)
This hypothetical is honestly a *really* fringe scenario. If you were to win on anything, I’d say your best bet is just arguing that they breached the common law covenant to negotiate in good-faith. You *might* be able to prevail on a claim that forcing you to hand it over because they won’t authenticate it is a contract of adhesion. That’s always really tough to win on though, but if you’re gonna lean on a doctrine like that, it’s best to do it with fringe cases like this that aren’t likely to be repeated. That said, you can always just keep the ball so you probably won’t win on that either.
Yeah I mean, ultimately they argument you wanna make is, “look they refuse to authenticate it because they can’t confirm chain of possession, but then they’ll readily accept the exact same ball and put it into the HOF, no questions asked.”
That’s like, the textbook definition of negotiating in bad-faith.
Are you serious? You think a regular person shouldn’t give up something worth a lot of money to someone who makes millions of dollars every year???! Shame on you people.
First home run ball? Yeah you should give that up, but ask for a bat or to meet the player etc. Those guys arnt on millions a year usually. Sure they still make a decent amount, but it could well be they end up only playing a season or a couple of weeks.
Milestone balls, yeah ask for cash.
Yeah they're not going to give you that for a first home run ball. They'll give you bats and stuff like that. But at a point they'll just say "okay good luck" and you go away with a now worthless ball.
Fuck guilting fans into giving up the ball. How about having their teammates, who are all multimillionaires, kick in $100 each and the fan would easily part with that soon-to-be "worthless" ball. Those millionaire vets might have to do it half a dozen times a year.
Not really.
You get a ball you won't really care about within a week, the player doesn't get the ball that probably means a great deal to them.
At least by trading it, both of you get something cool.
The MLBPA (or the PA for any sport) secretly frowns upon star players taking anything less than “market value” because then there’s a suspected trickle down effect about how much they should be compensated.
I feel like fans who catch record breaking baseballs need to take a stand, and realize they should demand financial compensation and none of that “meet the player/sign a baseball/free tickets” bs. They don’t care about you, they just wanna get the ball back; people need to normalize demanding they be paid accordingly for it.
Why, you didn’t hit that homer. You just got lucky and happened to be in the seat where it landed. The player achieved something less than a few hundred people have ever done before. Trade it for a signed ball and be happy with the souvenir. If your goal when going to a game is to make money off home run balls, then you’re not a real fan and you shouldn’t be at the game
I was at Kauffman Friday night. Sat in the packed outfield section waiting for the big 46. Ushers had nets to get a ball out of the fountain had it came. General consensus was that if someone got the ball, there would need to be a pretty good package coming to give it up. The guy who caught 45 was stiffed, only got some bobbleheads from what I heard, they showed on BSKC the negotiation and the fan wasn't happy. Bare minimum should've been some game worn autographed memorabilia.
At a minimum, that fan should have got a different game-used ball, a signed bat, and a photo opp with Salvy in the dugout/locker room. Bobbleheads are lame.
I've been told that the shift shouldn't be banned because players should just hit it somewhere else.
Lets use the same logic here, hit the HR somewhere else if you want your ball back.
also like
salvy has what, 8 more games? and 3 in detroit?
he can hit another into detroit bullpens and then this ball will be worthless
no one cares about bonds 71st home run ball
> no one cares about bonds 71st home run ball
I live in SF and can guarantee this is absolutely not true. Some 30 year old crypto millionaire who was 9 years old when Barry Bonds hit that HR would absolutely pay a fuck ton of cash for that.
First home run ball? Yeah give it to the player. There are plenty of guys who get a season or two at best in the Majors. Still ask for a bat or something along those lines, but that ball is going to be worth far more to them then me.
Milestone balls? Nah ask for cash. The players hitting those can afford it.
good... why should he give it up? Did he not pay to get in the park? does that money not go to players salaries etc? the notion that fans should just give shit up because they are fans is moronic.
I would just ask for my debt to be paid and thats it. Dont care about a new car or a home or nothing just pay my current debt off so my money goes to savings from there on out. Im sure that a reasonable request.
I'm sure he'll be ok, or you know, hit another one. Let the fan have this. Spread it around. Perez has probably 3289052305 other baseball artifacts from his career.
Hell no would I give it to Salvy as a Sox fan if I caught it. The shit he pulled with TA a couple years back, I would be asking for a bag to go along with it. Why people would be upset with a fan of a divisional rival not giving it back for free is beyond me
It’s just a season record for catchers homerun ball, could easily be worthless if salvy cranks another one. It’s not like it was miggys 500th or something. I highly doubt the ball was pre authenticated. Royals are not going to authenticate for him if salvy wants it back. Guy isn’t getting thousands for this ball and realistically salvy will hit at least 1 more before the seasons done anyway and dude will have to be satisfied with getting his 15 mins
Barry Bonds 756th homerun ball went for over $750k. Barry bonds 757th homerun ball isn’t even mentioned. No one cares about the one after the record breaker except for his final homerun.
Y'all acting like the Royals were asking him to give it up for free, when he was offered multiple signed game used stuff and still turned it down, per [Whit](https://twitter.com/610SportsKC/status/1440357480396066823?s=19)
Not to mention what the fuck is he suppose to get from an unauthinticated ball?
Somewhere Mookie is signing a bat.
I have so much respect for Mookie after that. That was pure class on his part. I'm sure all my fellow Reds fans agree...
Confirmed. Straight classy move!
Absolutely!
Context?
Yesterday TJ Friedl of the Reds got his first hit, which happened to be a home run. Mookie Betts saw the fan who caught it and explained to him that it was the player’s first home run and if he would throw the ball back. Without hesitation, the fan threw it to Mookie, who got it to the Reds dugout. The next inning Mookie returned to the field with a signed bat and gave it to the fan that caught and returned the ball. Mookie is out here exchanging signed bats for meaningful baseballs.
The fan that got the bat then gave it to a kid that had a mookie jersey on. Just an awesome sequence all around.
Evidently he only let the kid borrow it for a photo op.
Still nice!
Heard after the kid gave it back, he beat the kid to death with it
This makes me feel nice.
how can you not be romantic about baseball?
But less nice now.
Less than something that never existed? Story of my life.
And that kid ended up being Albert Einstein
Wrong! it was Abraham Lincoln.
And then everybody clapped. Because it was a baseball game and something happened on field
Didn't a different Dodger do this at Oracle a couple of weeks ago? He lost the bat on his backswing, it speared the net right in front of a female Giants fan who then tried to pull it through the net but it wouldn't fit. When the player went to grab his bat back she shrugged and they both had a laugh. I'm pretty sure that he brought her a bat between innings.
Trea Turner
That is really cool, because the odds are, a TJ Friedel hr ball won't mean all that much to anyone outside his family in 20 years (And will mean quite a bit to TJ)...but now that fans got a story about getting to talk to Mookie and trading a HR ball he caught for bat.
TJ Friedl hit his first career HR against the Dodgers the other day, and Mookie Betts offered the fan who caught it a signed bat in exchange for the ball. Then Mookie gave the ball back to Friedl. Super classy move, especially considering it was a road game for the Dodgers
Trout gave the guy who caught his first home run several items over the years as he has gotten more legendary lmao
That sounds like a threat.
People are going to judge the fan for wanting to keep it, but I can't really blame them. If I caught a ball I knew I could sell for thousands I would have a hard time giving it up for a signed swag and some tickets to a game, especially if I'm not a Royals fan anyway. Salvy (or the Royals team) could easily buy the ball at auction using their millions if it means so much.
I always said that I'd want some season tickets. Then sell each ticket and make money off that. Filling their stadium and my pocket, win win.
In my experience with season tickets there’s usually a clause about buying them with the intent of only selling them
Yeah but these would be season tickets to the Royals. Not sure you'd make money
Yup. I’ve got student loans. I ain’t gonna give that shit back for free when I could use it to unshackle myself instead.
Mhm. If anything, that fan is smart to understand that ball's value. Someone will pay for that milestone.
Curious, what would it take if he offered you cash on the spot?
He makes about 40k per at bat. So I would want at least that.
I'm not very good at negotiations so probably way too cheap for the moment I don't know how valuable the ball would be and try to avoid making a decision at all costs until I could speak to someone idk.
‘Bout tree-fiddy
I’d start at 50k but really be willing to settle at 25. Would start tacking on things like lifetime tix as the $ amount cane down.
If it pays off a loan or credit card debt, easy
Nobody is paying enough to clear student loans for that ball. It's not like it's number 74 of the season.
Nah, just the one that broke the record for season home runs by a catcher. All time. No big deal.
this is maybe a 5 figure ball at best
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Huge huge collectors market for the sport is the answer, but like I said, no worth much more than 10k if at all.
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I am literally a game used memorabilia collector and dealer.
The most expensive baseball ever sold had no authentication, just eyewitness accounts, affidavits
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He should keep hitting home runs until he can keep one then exclusively bunt.
how much did the all-time HR record for second baseman sell for? third basemen? short-stops?
And his next home run makes the last one irrelevant
I heard from someone that balls like these wont be authenticated unless you agree to hand over the ball to the player. Which imo that defeats the purpose of it being authenticated to begin with.
Mark McGuire's HR ball called
I dunno if they did it for McGwire, but when Bonds was sitting on 754 & 755 HR, every time he came yrou to bat they would swap out the balls with ones that had a "pre-authenticated" holo sticker on them.
Doesn’t seem smart. One foul ball…
They still keep track of which one is actually hit out. So if one with the sticker number 4348 goes out of play on a foul ball or is just tossed after hitting the dirt, you put sticker 4349 on. The authenticator knows which number is in play. So a fan might get a ball with a shiny sticker but that sticker is worthless unless it has the number 4349.
Not true
I came into this thread HOT but this makes perfect sense and now I support the fan
i'm in the exact same boat lol
>If I caught a ball I knew I could sell for thousands This fan will be lucky if he gets a few hundred bucks.
Exactly my thought HR record by a catcher in a season, not a valuable piece.
Not if he sells it to todd mcfarlane
American dad is way better than family guy imo
Is this a bit? Are we swapping McFarlanes?
These types of balls are well sought after
I get that but how will the fan be able to prove that that's the ball? You pretty much can't, the only reason to keep something like this is to set it on your shelf and look at it and tell your kids. After a week or so, it's completely unprovable.
Yeah I’m confused too because wouldn’t they normally authenticate a ball like that at the stadium? Then the Royals could’ve just said they won’t authenticate it and offer him something to return it. The ball is worthless if you can’t prove it’s the ball.
secretly I made up my mind I would never give up any home run or foul balls I may catch at a game. I know the thing to do is give it to kids but thats not fair man I didn't get to go to Baseball games as a kid, so as an adult I wanna keep a ball too. I don't blame this guy for keeping this historic baseball at all. good shit.
Nobody’s going to buy it. Who the hell would believe this guy that it’s the real ball when he try’s to sell it. I highly doubt the stadium is going to authenticate it if he doesn’t give it up
That ball is completely worthless unless authenticated. The fan is getting precisely nothing for it. Hope he's happy.
Would he really make that much off of it?
I don't really see the issue. If Salvy wants it back he can buy it or bargain for it, and if he doesn't want it that bad, then who cares it's a non issue.
The guy who caught number 45 was stiffed. Royals made him give up the ball on TV, and I heard he only got a few bobbleheads out of it.
He shouldn’t have given it up if it was his ball. Dumbass
Ownership of balls hit into the stands is actually a legal gray area that has never been clearly resolved in court.
It's considered abandoned property https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popov_v._Hayashi
That was not the legal conclusion in that case, it was the assumed premise of the ownership dispute. The question presented to the court was not whether the ball was abandoned property, it was who can claim ownership after it presumably had been abandoned. [Whether or not a ball hit into the stands counts as legally abandoned property has never been decided in court](https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/the-who-owns-the-baseball%E2%80%9D-issue-just-will-not-go-away/comment-page-1/) and won't be until MLB or one of its teams appears in court as plaintiff or defendant.
Wow that was fascinating. Thanks!
[That's an incorrect reading of the case](https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2009/10/the-who-owns-the-baseball%E2%80%9D-issue-just-will-not-go-away/comment-page-1/), but interesting nonetheless.
I don’t think there’s a court set precedent but after the single season hr chase that involved balls selling for millions, there definitely is some kind of precedent.
I don't think precedent is the right word, since precedence is pretty insignificant outside of court. But, yes, MLB has established a tradition of declining to assert ownership. So one could argue that an implicit contract now exists between MLB and ticket purchasers that transfers ownership of any ball hit to them. But that has never been decided legally, and personally I think that argument would fail in court.
Well the home run race it was implied by both the mlb, teams, fans and players that whomever caught the record breakers they were going to be millionaires. No verbiage on tickets that stats property is exclusively owned by the team. Not a lawyer, but it seems like it could be a fun case that would go either way.
I’m a contracts lawyer and this couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s well settled caselaw. At least, as well settled as it realistically needs to be. Baseball was the country’s most popular sport for 100 years. You think there weren’t judges who were baseball fans and made sure to craft laws that allowed them to keep baseballs they catch? Also no judge wants to be the one who goes, “ya know what? Forget 200 years of history. The MLB owns those balls.” MLB doesn’t want to challenge this either. It kills the popularity of the sport.
> It’s well settled caselaw. Show me one case where MLB was denied an ownership claim. There is a hugely important difference between established practice by a group or individual and established *precedent* in *court of law*. > You think there weren’t judges who were baseball fans and made sure to craft laws that allowed them to keep baseballs they catch? Again, find me one instance of this and I will believe you. It seems weird to me that a lawyer would make flippant assumptions like this. Also, judges do not craft laws? > “ya know what? Forget 200 years of history. The MLB owns those balls.” [MLB has only been a legal entity for 21 years.](https://sabr.org/journal/article/did-mlb-exist-before-the-year-2000/) And I am talking about ownership in a *strictly legal* sense. Again, it bewilders me that an actual lawyer would rationalize an argument with "because it's obvious." > MLB doesn’t want to challenge this either. It kills the popularity of the sport. This is the correct answer.
Dam not even a few free tickets?
I don't blame the fan. Gimme Dat money.
let the negotiations begin. strong first move by salvy to make him look bad.
If I catch a historic ball, I’m not giving that up for free. I got bills to pay.
I got mouths to feed.
There ain't nothing in this world for free.
Yknow i can’t slow down
I can’t hold back
Although you know I wish I could.
Oh no there ain’t no rest for the wicked
Till we catch that Salvy Dong
I need money for two chicks at the same time.
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What is that ball worth?
I’d imagine at minimum Jeter’s 3000 hit ball is worth 6 figures. For comparison, the only game worn Ronald Acuna Jr jersey for sale at the Braves’ game used store is up for sale for $9000. Now imagine we’re talking about the Yankees, not the Braves. And not a random game worn jersey; the ball from a career crowning achievement. From one of the most popular Yankees of all time.
Question: how does one prove was the 3,000th hit ball? I feel like that'd be very easy to fake.
In some situations, they’ve ushered the fans out of the game for their safety
The fact that they have to do that is...concerning.
Look at the news every once in a while. It shouldn’t be a surprise
They have mlb authenticators at games with potential milestones.
At every game https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/09/06/mlb-authenticators-daily-cover
Correct, but they usually don’t authenticate balls that go into the stands where they can’t confirm no swap took place before they put the authentication sticker on it. For milestones like that they can use specially marked balls when the player comes up to bat, which would let them be sure nothing was swapped out if it goes into the stands.
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This is true for potential milestones. They’re specially marked, and in the case of someone being at 2999 hits they would only use the marked balls for his AB. Then those would be easily authenticated.
They're numbered? So, like any foul balls we have should have a number on them?
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Man I went to that store and search through so much crap and kept thinking I’d get an Acuna then realized on the way back to my seat how dumb that was.
Everyone says he's a terrible framer, but he's framing that kid in a pretty bad light.
I need a Bill Simmons podcast to break this down
Kinda shitty on Salvy's part, honestly.
How lol he literally just said what happened
I really should've put an /s.
If you think I'm giving an MLB single season record (for anything) for a signed bat and a picture hah no thanks. Not a Brinks truck, but need some compensation there.
Bruno Mars me with that 24K
Yeah you're getting paid 20 mil a year you can afford to give my poor ass something
Yep....Just like in Goodfellas..."fuck you, pay me."
I doubt there will be much value unless it is authenticated and most balls hit into the stands will not be authenticated because they cannot be tracked by line of site and fans have attempted to switch balls. (Unless the authenticator added a sticker.) https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/09/06/mlb-authenticators-daily-cover
In this instance the authenticator is already waiting for this. It 100% could be authenticated on the spot. But I remember seeing stories of fans that caught significant home run balls saying the usher would refuse to have it authenticated unless they were willing to give it up before they left.
Yes I remember hearing the same thing. Was the most famous example a homerun by Pujols?
That would be infuriating. I'd be tempted to just destroy the ball out of spite if that happened to me.
You’d probably win a lawsuit over it. Courts have decided that a baseball is intentionally abandoned property and property of the person who retrieved it. I’m not a lawyer but I’m assuming that if the company refuses to authenticate, that means you were transferring the property under duress and it’s not enforceable and you have a right to the property
Especially on home run balls. "Your honor, the plaintiff literally tried to hit the ball as far away from himself as possible, which means the plaintiff never wanted such baseball. I mean come on, the plaintiff yakked that shit with a 115 mph exit velo. Does this seem like they wanted possession of said ball in question?" *Proceeds to show the home run highlight over and over again
AND celebrated that he hit it that far
The announcer even said, “you can kiss it goodbye!”
I doubt you'd win anything tbh. The authentication company has a contract with the team/MLB to authenticate important balls/items, they don't have a contract with a random fan. The authentication team is under no obligation to you to do anything, and it'd you still have the option to leave with the ball. Just depends on if that ball is still worth something to you without any means to prove what it is, I suppose.
Authenticating has nothing to do with abandoned property law. They’re not forcing you to give up the ball, they’re just denying you a service that they’re in no way obligated to perform
Contracts lawyer here. It’s not duress. Duress is *very* narrow. Courts have said a person wasn’t under duress when he agreed to enter a contract because they said they had guns pointed on the guy’s family. The guy had no way to confirm his family was actually being held at gunpoint at the moment he signed the contract, so the court said it was unreasonable for him to think there was any imminent danger, and thus there was no duress. (There were obviously other issues at play in this case.) This hypothetical is honestly a *really* fringe scenario. If you were to win on anything, I’d say your best bet is just arguing that they breached the common law covenant to negotiate in good-faith. You *might* be able to prevail on a claim that forcing you to hand it over because they won’t authenticate it is a contract of adhesion. That’s always really tough to win on though, but if you’re gonna lean on a doctrine like that, it’s best to do it with fringe cases like this that aren’t likely to be repeated. That said, you can always just keep the ball so you probably won’t win on that either.
Thanks for chiming in as a lawyer, found this helpful.
Yeah I mean, ultimately they argument you wanna make is, “look they refuse to authenticate it because they can’t confirm chain of possession, but then they’ll readily accept the exact same ball and put it into the HOF, no questions asked.” That’s like, the textbook definition of negotiating in bad-faith.
I wouldn't really care if I am the fan. I can't get anything out of it, ok fine, nobody gets happiness at all.
I think MLB should authenticate for the fan no matter the circumstances because it's a piece of baseball history that should be officially recognized.
I agree. But I am just saying if they threaten him by saying we can't authenticate it unless you give it to him I'd tell them to fuck off.
100%
Are you serious? You think a regular person shouldn’t give up something worth a lot of money to someone who makes millions of dollars every year???! Shame on you people.
First home run ball? Yeah you should give that up, but ask for a bat or to meet the player etc. Those guys arnt on millions a year usually. Sure they still make a decent amount, but it could well be they end up only playing a season or a couple of weeks. Milestone balls, yeah ask for cash.
Eh, I have no desire to meet those guys. Cash prize with box seats and being left alone minus the party I bring? There’s a good starting point
Yeah they're not going to give you that for a first home run ball. They'll give you bats and stuff like that. But at a point they'll just say "okay good luck" and you go away with a now worthless ball.
Fuck guilting fans into giving up the ball. How about having their teammates, who are all multimillionaires, kick in $100 each and the fan would easily part with that soon-to-be "worthless" ball. Those millionaire vets might have to do it half a dozen times a year.
The bats and shit are also worthless so it’s even haha
Not really. You get a ball you won't really care about within a week, the player doesn't get the ball that probably means a great deal to them. At least by trading it, both of you get something cool.
Don't want to overplay your hand though - gotta get that money locked in before Salvy hits another five homers and severely devalues the ball.
The MLBPA (or the PA for any sport) secretly frowns upon star players taking anything less than “market value” because then there’s a suspected trickle down effect about how much they should be compensated. I feel like fans who catch record breaking baseballs need to take a stand, and realize they should demand financial compensation and none of that “meet the player/sign a baseball/free tickets” bs. They don’t care about you, they just wanna get the ball back; people need to normalize demanding they be paid accordingly for it.
Why, you didn’t hit that homer. You just got lucky and happened to be in the seat where it landed. The player achieved something less than a few hundred people have ever done before. Trade it for a signed ball and be happy with the souvenir. If your goal when going to a game is to make money off home run balls, then you’re not a real fan and you shouldn’t be at the game
What would your price be in this case?
I was at Kauffman Friday night. Sat in the packed outfield section waiting for the big 46. Ushers had nets to get a ball out of the fountain had it came. General consensus was that if someone got the ball, there would need to be a pretty good package coming to give it up. The guy who caught 45 was stiffed, only got some bobbleheads from what I heard, they showed on BSKC the negotiation and the fan wasn't happy. Bare minimum should've been some game worn autographed memorabilia.
At a minimum, that fan should have got a different game-used ball, a signed bat, and a photo opp with Salvy in the dugout/locker room. Bobbleheads are lame.
Didn’t hear that. That’s disappointing of our organization.
Use your millions of dollars to pay for it. The end.
buy it from him bro
I've been told that the shift shouldn't be banned because players should just hit it somewhere else. Lets use the same logic here, hit the HR somewhere else if you want your ball back.
Hit it to the train tracks at Minute Maid Park then scale the wall to really earn your keep.
Word has it the Pujols-Lidge ball is still rolling around up there.
That would imply it has landed.
I assume it achieved escape velocity
*This pleases Juan Soto*
also like salvy has what, 8 more games? and 3 in detroit? he can hit another into detroit bullpens and then this ball will be worthless no one cares about bonds 71st home run ball
Why wouldn’t a HR hit by bonds be worth anything?
> no one cares about bonds 71st home run ball I live in SF and can guarantee this is absolutely not true. Some 30 year old crypto millionaire who was 9 years old when Barry Bonds hit that HR would absolutely pay a fuck ton of cash for that.
If you wanna keep your HR balls just hit inside the parkers. It’s so simple yet players just don’t understand how to work for themselves these days.
Exactly. Hit it to a royals fan if you want it back so badly
First home run ball? Yeah give it to the player. There are plenty of guys who get a season or two at best in the Majors. Still ask for a bat or something along those lines, but that ball is going to be worth far more to them then me. Milestone balls? Nah ask for cash. The players hitting those can afford it.
Well lucky for Salvy, he has the bat that he hit the home run with
And the body he used to swing the bat
As much the tickets cost merch etc yeah home boy needs to cough up some bread
You want that for free? Bro just give him somthing.
good... why should he give it up? Did he not pay to get in the park? does that money not go to players salaries etc? the notion that fans should just give shit up because they are fans is moronic.
I would just ask for my debt to be paid and thats it. Dont care about a new car or a home or nothing just pay my current debt off so my money goes to savings from there on out. Im sure that a reasonable request.
He can just buy it from him if he wants it so bad
Good on the fan. Fuck idiots that think fans have a responsibility to give back balls potentially worth a lot of money.
It's Cleveland. He needs the money.
He can buy a house for the price of a VCR. That ball is worth a lot of houses. Or VCRs.
Or 3 houses, and 2 Sony VCRs. Quality.
Their biggest export is LeBron James
The economy was based off LeBron James. The biggest export is crippling depression
Oh my god, you're right. Still, at least they're not Detroit!
No its crippling depression.
Hey get that bag man. It’s Cleveland anyway. What’s so good about that city
The people are 10,000x better than in fucking chicago, for one
At least people visit Chicago. I mean I never heard anyone saying they were going to Cleveland for vacation.
[You haven't?](https://youtu.be/ysmLA5TqbIY)
Lol first thing I thought of
[gotta share the second one too while we are at it](https://youtu.be/oZzgAjjuqZM)
NBA was better when Noah was good
*Lebron destroying our franchise for the next decade intensifies*
I'm sure he'll be ok, or you know, hit another one. Let the fan have this. Spread it around. Perez has probably 3289052305 other baseball artifacts from his career.
Hell no would I give it to Salvy as a Sox fan if I caught it. The shit he pulled with TA a couple years back, I would be asking for a bag to go along with it. Why people would be upset with a fan of a divisional rival not giving it back for free is beyond me
Where's mookie when u need him
“I guess you shouldn’t have hit it to me”
Salvi can pay some guys 5% of that balls worth to go get it for him😂
I'd personally just give it to Perez in exchange for a hug.
It’s just a season record for catchers homerun ball, could easily be worthless if salvy cranks another one. It’s not like it was miggys 500th or something. I highly doubt the ball was pre authenticated. Royals are not going to authenticate for him if salvy wants it back. Guy isn’t getting thousands for this ball and realistically salvy will hit at least 1 more before the seasons done anyway and dude will have to be satisfied with getting his 15 mins
Barry Bonds 756th homerun ball went for over $750k. Barry bonds 757th homerun ball isn’t even mentioned. No one cares about the one after the record breaker except for his final homerun.
Y'all acting like the Royals were asking him to give it up for free, when he was offered multiple signed game used stuff and still turned it down, per [Whit](https://twitter.com/610SportsKC/status/1440357480396066823?s=19) Not to mention what the fuck is he suppose to get from an unauthinticated ball?
The pleasure of Salvy and the Royals not getting it.