It’s a Mad Lib by now.
Fan catches milestone baseball.
Team offers horrendous deal in return for said baseball.
If the fan accepts the deal, he or she is immediately ridiculed by collectors in the know. Hours later, comes regret and anger.
That’s why it’s time for all this to stop.
It’s just not in the best interest of Major League Baseball. It’s a bad look.
Last week, as I’m sure many of you have heard, Ambar Roman caught Shohei Ohtani’s first home run as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Roman’s husband, Alexis Valenzuela, said that team officials separated him from his wife and got her to accept a lowball offer. For a ball worth around $100,000, she got two signed hats, an autographed, unused bat and an autographed ball. It’s a package worth around $3,000 tops.
The Dodgers told The Athletic’s Sam Blum they were willing to look into its practices of how the team conducts itself when there are milestone balls, but it’s not that hard.
Major League Baseball teams are a brand. The way they corner fans and offer one-sided deals isn’t worth it in the end.
In 1998, Phil Ozersky, a fan making $30,000 a year, caught Mark McGwire’s then single-season record 70th home run ball. The Cardinals wanted the ball. They offered an unused signed McGwire bat ($500 value), a signed ball ($250) and a signed jersey ($500-$1,500, depending on the quality of the jersey). That’s a max deal of $2,200 to Ozersky.
Luckily, Ozerky also asked to meet McGwire. McGwire declined, so Ozersky declined the offer. Three months later, Ozersky sold the ball in an auction for $3.05 million.
For those scoring at home, Ozersky, after auction fees, made 1,000 times more than what he was offered by the Cardinals.
In 2022, Cory Youmans caught Aaron Judge’s American League single-season home run record No. 62 — which ended up being Judge's last homer of the season. The Yankees had a brief conversation with Youmans about getting some signed memorabilia, but Youmans made it clear that he was going to think about his decision, and negotiations then stopped.
The Yankees' offer wouldn’t have been close. Youmans sold the ball $1.5 million at auction.
Now, before we go on, let’s clear one thing up. In light of Roman's situation, many on social media have said Major League Baseball played hardball by refusing to authenticate the ball if she didn’t give it up. That is not true.
Sources told cllct that the ball wasn’t marked because Ohtani’s first home run as a Dodgers player wasn’t picked as a milestone, as were the balls with Judge after home run No. 59 and with Pujols’ 700th career home run in 2022. So Ohtani, who now has the ball, won’t even be able to get an authentication sticker on the ball himself.
But how about this novel concept?
What happens if MLB and the fans work together instead of trying to out negotiate each other.
“Hi, Ambar, we see you caught the home run. We have video of you catching the home run. We are now standing with you a minute later. You have no other ball in your possession. We will authenticate it. Let’s be partners together on this.”
"Let’s auction the ball and do a 50/50 split. Half the money goes to the Dodgers Foundation. Half the money goes to you. You’ll meet Shohei Ohtani. He’ll sign a couple items, including a ticket from today’s game, and we’ll have the team photographer take a picture of you two with the ball. Since our owners are part of Guggenheim, a company that deals with financial services and annuities, we would also love to show you how to invest your money.”
Is that so hard?
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.