2024 Shohei Ohtani 176th Career Home Run Baseball to Set Record for Japanese-Born Major Leaguers, MLB Authentic....

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Ohtani breaks tie with Hideki Matsui!

2024 Shohei Ohtani 176th Career Home Run Baseball to Set Record for Japanese-Born Major Leaguers, MLB Authentic. He's been called the second coming of Babe Ruth, dominant from both sides of the sixty feet and six inches, and this incredible relic speaks to the slugging brilliance of this once-in-a-century talent. Facing right-hander Adrian Houser in the third inning of a New York Mets visit to Dodger Stadium on April 21, 2024, Ohtani crushed a 0-1 slider, delivering this baseball 423 feet into the right field pavilion. The two-run shot would prove to be the game-winner in a 10-0 shutout.

The home run would carry Ohtani's career tally to 176, breaking a tie with 2009 World Series MVP Hideki Matsui to make the newly-minted Dodger the most prolific Major League long ball artist to emerge from the Land of the Rising Sun. At the time of this writing, Ohtani leads the National League in both home runs and batting average, only nine RBI's off the Triple Crown pace. There is every reason to believe that Frank Robinson's solitary status as the only man to win the MVP Award in each league is in serious danger.

Presented is one of the most significant baseballs to emerge from Ohtani's paradigm-shifting service to the Bigs, a relic that affirms his status as the most fearsome Japanese slugger in the history of American professional baseball. Ironclad assurance of authenticity is delivered by Major League Baseball itself, whose holographic authentication sticker is affixed to the ball. Typing the serial number into the online database will provide all the details of this historic achievement.

The ball exhibits proper game use for its ride into history, and what appears to be "E6" is handwritten on either side of the MLB logo printed on the ball, apparently applied so that the balls pitched to Ohtani would be recognizable when the record-breaker was retrieved. This has become common practice in the Majors whenever a ballplayer approaches a significant milestone. Surely there will be plenty more to come in the future for this elite talent, but this one will always be particularly special to those with an affection for the history of Japanese baseball in all of its forms. MLB Authentic YP439812 (FZY). LOA from Heritage Auctions.