
First Shohei Ohtani card to sell for $1 million includes coveted piece of his pants
A Shohei Ohtani trading card sold for nearly $1.07 million through Heritage Auctions on Saturday night, making it the first Ohtani card to reach the seven-figure milestone.
The one-of-a-kind Topps Dynasty Black card was from a set produced last year to commemorate Ohtani's historic 50/50 season. It was autographed in gold pen by Ohtani and includes the MLB logo patch from the pants he wore on Sept. 19, when he became the first player to reach 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single Major League season. Following that game, Topps, which has an exclusive deal with Ohtani, acquired the pants and batting gloves he wore during his historic performance and put pieces of them into cards.
Trading cards that feature the league logo patch from a player's uniform are highly coveted by collectors and command a premium on the secondary market. This card is no different, as its price far exceeds that of any other Ohtani card sold to date.
The previous record for an Ohtani card was achieved on Nov. 3, when an Orange Refractor (a parallel version of the standard card with just 25 printed) of his 2018 Bowman Chrome autographed rookie card with the rare grade of BGS 10 Pristine sold for $533,140. A different Topps Dynasty Black card featuring a piece of both the pants and batting gloves he wore in the game where he reached 50/50 sold for 'just' $173,240 on Feb. 22.
Advertisement
Even though the Ohtani 50/50 MLB logo patch card is from a legendary moment in the sport's history, it still did not sell for as much as the Paul Skenes Debut Patch card, which was bought for $1.11 million by Dick's Sporting Goods in an auction that ended on March 21.
In October, the ball Ohtani hit for his 50th home run sold for a record $4.392 million to Taiwan-based investment firm UC Capital, which put it on public display.
The buyer of the Ohtani 50/50 MLB logo patch card has yet to be revealed.
The Athletic maintains full editorial independence in all our coverage. When you click or make purchases through our links, we may earn a commission.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Associated Press
30 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Rangers sign veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel to a minor-league contract
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Texas Rangers signed veteran reliever Craig Kimbrel to a minor-league contract Wednesday. The 37-year-old Kimbrel will report to Triple-A Round Rock this week. Kimbrel pitched one scoreless inning with the Atlanta Braves before being designated for assignment last week. He opted for free agency instead of having the club send him outright to its Triple-A Gwinnett affiliate. The right-hander is a nine-time All-Star and won a World Series title with Boston in 2018. He has pitched parts of 16 seasons in the majors with for eight teams. He has 440 saves in 838 career appearances. Kimbrel was with Baltimore last season. ___ AP MLB:

Associated Press
30 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement leaves game in 9th after banging knee diving for a grounder
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Blue Jays third baseman Ernie Clement left in the ninth inning Wednesday against St. Louis after banging his knee in the eighth when he dove for a grounder. Clement needed some attention but finished the inning. He was replaced in the field by Addison Barger for the ninth, and Toronto beat the Cardinals 5-2. After the game, in an on-field interview with broadcaster Sportsnet, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said: 'Ernie's a hockey player. He should be fine. We just wanted to be careful with him and not make it worse.' Clement had three hits, including his fourth homer of the season that gave Toronto a 5-2 lead in the fifth. He raised his batting average to .280 for the season. ___ AP MLB:

Associated Press
40 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Montas and Manaea to make rehab starts this weekend as they near return to Mets
NEW YORK (AP) — Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea will make minor league rehab appearances this weekend and both could join the New York Mets' rotation in the coming weeks. Montas will make a fifth rehab start Friday and Manaea will take the mound two days later for his third, manager Carlos Mendoza said Wednesday. Mendoza said he isn't worried about how to sort out seven pitchers for five rotation slots when Montas and Manaea both get back. 'Usually it plays itself out,' Mendoza said. 'We still are at least two weeks away from making those decisions and I'm hoping that by the time we get there it is going to be a difficult decision. That means everyone's healthy. That means everybody continues to throw the ball well and we have some good problems.' Montas strained a lat muscle early in spring training and made his first minor league appearance on May 24. The 32-year-old right-hander has a 9.00 ERA in two games each for Class-A Brooklyn and Triple-A Syracuse, striking out nine and walking eight in 12 innings. After his next outing for Syracuse, he could make his Mets debut. 'Let's get through this one on Friday and then we'll see where we're at,' Mendoza said. 'This is kind of like spring training for him and hitters now are like midseason form. And it's hard to put too much into it where, you're not game-planning, you're just going out there, which I think we've got to do a better job of that, in preparing him and giving him a little bit of an idea.' Manaea arrived at spring training with a strained right oblique and the 33-year-old left-hander made his first rehab appearance on June 6. He has a 6.23 ERA in two outings and 4 1/3 innings with Brooklyn, and Mendoza didn't specify where Manaea will make his next appearance. New York entered Wednesday with the best record in the National League at 43-24, leading the NL East by 4 1/2 games. Clay Holmes, David Peterson, Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill and Griffin Canning have combined to make 63 of 67 starts for a rotation that began the day with a big league-best 2.91 ERA. ___ AP MLB: