A Shohei Ohtani jersey, believed to be game-worn from his time playing for the Nippon-Ham Fighters of Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league in 2017, sold for $65,000 Sunday night at Grey Flannel Auctions, representing one of the earliest Ohtani gamers ever offered at auction.
Ohtani debuted for the Nippon-Ham Fighters in 2013 at the age of 18, opting to turn pro directly out of high school. Having already drawn the attention of scouts around the world, thanks to his 99-mph fastball and an equally dominant presence in the batter’s box, multiple MLB teams were interested in the young phenom.
However, he decided to remain in Japan, in part because he would be allowed to continue pitching and batting (MLB teams were less than keen on the idea).
During his five seasons in the NPB, Ohtani developed into the most dominant player the league had ever seen. By 2016, he recorded a 1.86 ERA and just four home runs allowed, while batting .322 and slugging 22 homers.
In 2017, while his pitching was limited to just six games, he batted .332 and his 24 home runs in 66 games, positioning himself as the most coveted international prospect in the history of the sport.
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The rest is history, as he would sign with the Angels and come over to Major League Baseball, where he continued to dominate, signing the largest contract in history with the Dodgers and winning a World Series following a season in which he became the first major-leaguer to reach 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in the same season.
His memorabilia has been on fire, such as the record sale of his 50th homer for $4.392 million. Multiple record prices have been set for his cards in the last few months, and the trend shows no sign of slowing down.
Ohtani's game-worn jerseys have eclipsed six figures on multiple occasions, the most notable of which came for his first Dodgers jersey, which sold for $100,500 in May.
Just one other game-used jersey from Ohtani’s time in Japan has sold publicly, a 2014 jersey which was auctioned for charity at the NPB All-Star Game.
The jersey coming to Grey Flannel surpassed that figure, due to the rising market for game-worn memorabilia, as well as Ohtani’s incredible popularity. Unlike most modern jerseys to sell for big bucks, this piece is lacking a photo-match, which many collectors deem a non-negotiable when buying game-worn pieces.
However, the auction house includes a letter of provenance stating it was acquired from a “team source” and Grey Flannel writes it “shows appropriate wear” in their opinion.
Bidding on the lot opened at $5,000.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.