Fan files lawsuit to stop auction of Shohei Ohtani's 50th HR ball

Max Matus, 18, says ball was in his possession before it was taken away in scrum

Cover Image for Fan files lawsuit to stop auction of Shohei Ohtani's 50th HR ball
Shohei Ohtani watches the flight of his historic 50th homer during his six-hit, 10-RBI performance. (Credit: Getty Images)

Goldin Auctions CEO Ken Goldin announced Wednesday his auction house had secured Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run ball from the man who came away from a scrum with the valued piece of memorabilia last week.

Hours later, attorneys for 18-year-old Max Matus filed a lawsuit against Goldin and the man who emerged with the ball, named in the suit as Chris Belanski, and his friend who is marketing the ball, Kelvin Ramirez, saying the ball was in fact Matus' first. The suit was filed in the 11th Judicial Circuit Court in Dade County, Florida.

Matus is seeking injunctive relief to stop the sale of the ball, which the suit claims, among other things, was taken from him as a result of civil battery. He is asking the court to stipulate Matus is the rightful owner of the ball.

An emergency hearing has been scheduled for 4 p.m. Thursday.

Goldin Auctions said Thursday it plans to proceed with the auction and is set to begin taking bids Friday, with the opening bid at $500,000.

"We are aware of the case that has been filed," a Goldin spokesperson said. "Having reviewed the allegations and images included in the lawsuit, and publicly available video from the game, Goldin plans to go live with the auction of the Ohtani 50-50 ball. While Goldin has been named as a party in the case, there are no allegations of wrongdoing by the company."

Darren Rovell breaks down the lawsuit trying to halt the sale of Shohei Ohtani's 50th home run ball.

The ball also can be purchased immediately at Goldin for $4.5 million at any point up until Oct. 9.

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Matus turned 18 last Thursday and went to the Dodgers-Marlins game with his father's colleagues from a real-estate firm in Miami.

Ohtani, seeking to become the first player to have 50 home runs and 50 steals, hit home run No. 49 in the sixth inning. In the seventh inning, Ohtani crushed the ball to left-center field, where the employees were standing. After the ball was missed by one of his father's co-workers, Max, standing below, went after the ball.

The suit says Matus was able to "firmly grab the ball in his left hand, successfully obtaining possession of the 50-50 ball."

Belanski, who had remained anonymous before the lawsuit, "wrapped his legs around Max's arm and used his hands to wrangle the ball out of Max's hands, stealing the ball for himself," the suit claims. Belanski then had the ball authenticated by Major League Baseball before the leaving the ballpark with the piece of history.

As support, the suit offers still photos of a video that shows the interaction between the two, though the images lack clarity to show Matus had his hand on the ball.

"He's not an aggressive person," father Greg said of Max in an interview with cllct. "He was a kid at a baseball game trying to catch a ball."

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.