While Shohei Ohtani’s on-field season began with a lot of promise, off-field it was nothing short of disastrous. The superstar has seen himself stumbling from one controversy to another. However, things are finally getting on track for the two-way phenom. The gambling scandal is behind him and the Los Angeles Dodgers have made things better with the fans who caught his home run ball. However, that has unexpectedly led to Tom Brady catching strays by Pat McAfee.
During “The Pat McAfee Show”, the former football punter held an extensive session on Shohei Ohtani’s controversial Dodgers start. McAfee was livid at Ippei Mizuhara and made it known through some strict words. However, later, he talked about Will Ireton, the new interpreter of Ohtani and how he may have mistranslated, leading to a home run ball controversy. McAfee then reminded everyone of Tom Brady’s “last touchdown” ball saga.
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“Mike Evans, Tom Brady situation. You remember that they auctioned that ball and then he kept playing. Well, not only that but the offer in which it was…like two pair of gloves, two high fives, a big water bottle spray, sandwich maybe – how about it? And they gave it up, and that internet was like, you idiot, you absolute doofus, what a bad business decision,” McAfee said.
McAfee was referring to Brady’s short retirement in 2022. The legendary quarterback had announced his retirement in February. As a result, his last touchdown ball was auctioned off for a huge $518,000. However, just 24 hours later, Brady withdrew that retirement, and the price of the ball plummeted.
While nothing similar has happened with Ohtani, he had to make a lot of effort to get back his ball. The ball has allegedly been valued at over $100,000.
Shohei Ohtani’s first home run ball and questions of authentication
While the Dodgers gave the ball-catching couple a VIP treatment, their favorite part was meeting Shohei Ohtani. However, as Jeff Passan noted, baseball’s authentication process should be a bit more expanded. The instances of teams not authenticating important balls for fans have been far too numerous to ignore.
This is one of the reasons why the Dodgers’ act of giving fans some special treatment was well-received. After all, that is something that has rarely been done before and it might set an important precedent for baseball. Still, for Ohtani to do so much to get his ball back is quite funny. Especially because other players have gotten things back with far less effort.
