You take it, I’ve got it for sure. That’s a common saying in team sports. It describes actions in which something goes wrong unnecessarily, but all the more completely. In a slight modification, it was recently also valid in the American professional baseball league MLB. In the spotlight: Markus Lynn Betts from the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the fourth final game against the New York Yankees, he ran after a ball to the stands and with a slight hop caught the playing equipment on the padded wall at the top of which the first spectators were sitting. Unfortunately, in this case, they were Yankees fans who thought it would be a good idea to grab the player’s arm and force his catcher’s mitt open to get to the ball. True to the motto: We’ll take it, he’ll definitely have it.
Clearly, this action also went completely wrong. Firstly, the ball fell back into the field. Secondly, the referees still considered the equipment to be caught and thirdly, the two perpetrators were thrown out of the stadium. However, the game still didn’t have a happy ending. The Dodgers had to admit defeat with 4:11.
In the hustle and bustle, the question remained unanswered as to what happened to the object of desire (i.e. the ball) after it narrowly escaped being stolen. This question cannot be answered at this point. What is clear is that a ball that is in the right place at the right time can suddenly become extremely valuable. Just over a week earlier, the one with which Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani hit his 50th home run of the season had been auctioned off. Combined with 50 stolen bases, that’s a once in a lifetime achievement.
This story about the ball was worth four million euros to an unknown fan, which he paid at auction. This makes baseball the most expensive ball of all time. What were those days when Helmut Haller simply packed up the football with which Geoffrey Hurst had (not) scored the famous Wembley goal in 1966 after the game, took it with him to his hometown of Augsburg and gave it to his son Jürgen there. 30 years later the English noticed the loss. The British tabloids pounced on Haller, who found the ball in the cellar. The Daily Mirror is said to have paid 75,000 euros for Haller to get on the plane and bring the ball back. It has since been exhibited at the National Football Museum in Manchester. A real bargain.
