Ohtani 50-50 baseball center of lawsuit

When money is involved, litigation is never far behind. The moment that Shohei Ohtani’s 50-50 baseball was hit into the stands, everyone saw dollar signs. And now, the wrangling really begins.

An 18-year-old from Miami, Max Matus, has found himself in the middle of a legal battle over a piece of baseball history - Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball. What should’ve been a thrilling moment at a Dodgers-Marlins game has now turned into a courtroom showdown, with Matus filing a lawsuit to stop the sale of the prized ball.

It all started last week when Ohtani, on the brink of setting another record, smashed his 50th homer into the left-center seats. Max, who was celebrating his birthday with his dad’s colleagues, thought he’d caught the big prize. The lawsuit he’s filed says he had the ball securely in his left hand, a claim supported by blurry video stills. But Chris Belanski, the man who eventually walked out of the stadium with the ball, had other plans.

According to the suit, Belanski didn’t just stumble into his good fortune - he wrestled it away from Max. “Wrapped his legs around Max’s arm” is how the legal papers describe the struggle, saying Belanski used force to snatch the ball out of the teenager’s grip. To add insult to injury, Belanski had the ball authenticated by Major League Baseball before slipping out of the stadium.

Max’s father, Greg, is standing by his son, describing him as anything but aggressive. “He was a kid at a baseball game trying to catch a ball,” Greg said in a recent interview.

But the stakes have escalated beyond a simple catch at a ballgame. Goldin Auctions, one of the biggest names in sports memorabilia, has plans to auction off the ball, with bidding set to open at $500,000. The ball could even be purchased outright for $4.5 million before the auction ends on October 9.

Max, however, isn’t ready to see the ball slip away again. His lawyers are asking the court to stop the sale, arguing the ball was his before it was wrongfully taken from him. They’re hoping for a quick decision before the auction begins.

As of Wednesday night, Ken Goldin, CEO of Goldin Auctions, is staying quiet on the whole ordeal. Meanwhile, Max and his family wait to see if the courts will agree that the 50th home run ball should’ve been his all along. What started as a magical night at the ballpark is now a bitter legal dispute, with both sides holding firm on their claim to a piece of history.

Short of the league simply requiring all balls hit into the stands to be returned to the field of play, there is little hope that this sort of thing will go away. After all, lawsuits are as American as apple pie. Or baseball for that matter.