The lucky fan who ended up with Shohei Ohtani’s 50th home run ball, which made the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar the first MLB player to hit 50 home runs with 50 stolen bases in the same season, faced a potential payout of $200,000 for that piece of history.
While the identity of the fan who ultimately ended up with the home run ball after a scrum in left field remains unknown at LoanDepot Park in Miami during the seventh inning, one unfortunate spectator did not get his hands on the ball, which happened in full view of Bally Sports Florida cameras.
Ohtani’s second homer of the game sailed over the Dodgers’ bullpen in left field toward the “Marlins Crew” section. The ball initially landed out of reach of a fan wearing a teal tank top, but bounced back to him for another chance at history and possible prosperity. But the ball barely eluded his left hand as he reached for the ball.
From the camera angle, it’s unclear how close the fan was to receiving the ball. On TV, the ball appears to be inches from his fingers. Should he have stretched further or even tried to dive for it, as Tommy Hutton joked on the Bally Sports Florida broadcast? Or would he have risked falling off the railing and injuring himself? (Presumably the fan wouldn’t have wanted that potential $200,000 to go toward medical expenses.)
Yet baseball history and a six-figure payoff (assuming the fan hadn’t been generous enough to throw the ball back to the Dodgers and Ohtani) seemed tantalizingly close, yet painfully out of reach. The moment will surely always be memorable, but not for the reasons he would have preferred.
