One fan is hoping to cash in on a part of Shohei Ohtani’s incredible performance during Game 4 of the National League Championship Series.
Ohtani launched three home runs in the 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, which propelled the Los Angeles Dodgers to the World Series with the NLCS sweep. Video showed David Flores ended up with the third home run ball, and he said he plans on selling it.
“I have a 12-year-old son and his college is in his future,” Flores said, per Josh Peter of USA Today.
He also said, “It ricocheted to me and I just caught it like a baby and I squeezed it nice and tight, and it just happened that I stayed calm and I remained calm.”
Peter noted Carlo Mendoza said he found Ohtani’s second homer in bushes after it went over the right-center field pavilion roof, although there is no video to confirm as much. Steve Brener, who is in the Dodgers’ public relations department, “expressed skepticism about Mendoza’s claim,” per Peter.
Mendoza said he prefers to give the ball back to Ohtani.
The fate of the first home-run ball is unknown at this time.
Hitting three monster home runs in front of a raucous home crowd to lead the team to a second straight World Series would be an incredible performance on its own. But Ohtani also started the game on the mound as a pitcher.
All he did in that role was strike out 10 and allow two hits in six scoreless innings of work. It was another brilliant starting pitching performance for the Dodgers in the series after Blake Snell, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow impressed in the first three games.
Given what was at stake and the overall showing, it was arguably the most memorable game of Ohtani’s legendary career. It fully highlighted how unique of a player he is across all sports as he single-handedly took over the victory in multiple ways.
A souvenir from that performance could certainly be worth plenty of money, and Flores is hoping to receive the windfall.
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