In the illustrious world of baseball collectibles where the unimaginable value of sports has always balanced on the brink of the surreal, Shohei Ohtani’s pants make an unprecedented entrance. If you thought memorabilia could not escalate in lunacy or costliness, think again, as this latest auction reveals the pants of perhaps baseball’s most multi-dimensional player to be worth well more than just a pair of standard denims—these bottoms are big business.
In a heart-stopping auction event, a baseball card, although one might argue it’s more of a fabric scrapbook with elusive side benefits, fetched an eye-watering $1.07 million at Heritage Auctions. What catapults this card into the stratosphere of sports luxury is a patch of Ohtani’s breeches from his career-defining game. A story woven as intricately as the stitches holding this collectible together, October saw Ohtani etch his name into MLB history as the only player to ever reach the extraordinary milestone of 50 home runs with 50 stolen bases, making those pants the Cinderella of any baseball collector’s ballroom dance.
Assuming an air of grandeur that accompanies all noteworthy relics, the Topps Dynasty Black card not only boasts a swatch of cloth from the celebrated trousers, but it’s graced by Ohtani’s autograph, splendidly adorned in glistening gold ink. The inclusion of the MLB logo patch lends it a shine rivaling a newly caught fly ball under stadium lights. As for the fortunate individual who now possesses this piece of modern history—their identity remains shrouded in secrecy, akin to the eternal question of why socks persistently vanish in the laundry.
Previous Ohtani-card sale records look like pocket change in comparison, with a 2018 rookie card bringing in a paltry half-million dollars. This sale underscores the new royalty tier for baseball paraphernalia, where pants have risen above their station to become regal attire, and in this context, the card reflects the symbolic authority of pants—and their peculiar ability to shape the man.
The frenzy doesn’t end there. Evidently fueled by a sense of completionism or rampant pants adoration, Topps released a trinity of cards celebrating Ohtani’s historic game. Among these, others feature not only pieces of those now infamous trousers but also Ohtani’s batting glove tags. One such card, offering yet another slice of his game-worn trousers, was a relative bargain at $173,240 at auction in February, providing evidence that some fans might be more inclined to invest in hands-on memorabilia than legacies of leg lifts.
Heritage Auctions’ own sports memorabilia maestro Chris Ivy highlighted the historical resonance of Ohtani’s achievements captured within these confines and quipped, “Shohei Ohtani is baseball’s biggest rockstar, and this card perfectly immortalizes his historic moment—plus, people absolutely love that logo patch.” A delightful twist in this narrative is that this particular card eschews the sanctified category of rookie cards, challenging the collector’s creed that the rookie year holds the Holy Grail in card collecting.
Meanwhile, across another corner of the baseball universe, Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes saw his own rookie card snap up $1.11 million, but without a good pair of pants to flaunt, can it even tread Ohtani’s hallowed ground?
How precisely did Ohtani make these seams ever so powerful? He strutted into LoanDepot Park needling ever nearer to the mystical numbers of 50 home runs and 49 steals. By the sheer will of sheer socks and showmanship, it took him only until the second inning to snag bases 50 and 51 as if liberated by the cha-ching of a free shopping spree. By the seventh inning, amid a crowd electrified by expectation, he hoisted Marlins reliever Mike Baumann’s curveball to fame as it soared 391 feet into baseball eternity. As if that wasn’t grand enough, the very ball he sent skyward commanded a staggering $4.39 million at auction. Curiously, this raises one recurrent question—just what will collectors won’t splurge for a piece of Ohtani’s legacy?
As bids soar to unthinkable zeniths, expect many more of Ohtani’s everyday gear—be it forlorn socks, frayed shoelaces, or even surreptitiously obtained chewing gum wrappers—to make striking appearances at auction houses. It’s a wild, wild world for collectors who have just learned their bank accounts must now accommodate the disquiet of laundry day.
