The auction for Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run ball has topped $1 million.
After 10 bids in the first nine hours Friday, the current high bid is $1,281,000, including buyer's premium, at Goldin Auctions.
Bidding will run until Oct. 16.
At its current price, it is now the third-highest priced home run ball ever behind Mark McGwire's 70th (sold for $3 million in 1999) and Aaron Judge's 62nd ($1.5 million, 2022).
After a legal fight over the ball ensued, a judge in Miami ordered Thursday that Goldin could start the bidding, but would not be able to actually sell the ball until after Oct. 10, when a hearing would take place.
Max Matus, 18, is suing the owner of the historic piece of memorabilia, Christian Belanski, saying he had the ball first.
Belanski emerged from the scrum during the seventh inning of Ohtani's incredible game in which he went 6-for-6, had three homers and two stolen bases, en route to becoming the first Major League Baseball player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases.
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Matus' attorneys unsuccessfully argued to stop the auction of the ball, but did stop the possibility of an immediate sale. Goldin originally offered for a person to be able to buy the ball outright for a price of $4.5 million. Per the judge's order, no sale can take place before the hearing that could determine whether the case will proceed to trial.
After Belanski caught it, he was whisked away to a private room in Miami's loanDepot Park, where Major League Baseball authenticators checked the overt and covert markings on the ball and confirmed it was the fourth ball of the at-bat pitched to Ohtani that he hit over the wall in left-center field. They then affixed the hologram "YP431048, Validation Code; WSG."
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectible market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.