LOS ANGELES — It all happened so quickly for Ambar Roman. The lifelong Dodgers fan watched as her husband dove to the ground with others in search of Shohei Ohtani’s home run ball.
Then Roman looked at the ground, near her feet, and there it was. She picked up the milestone baseball, Ohtani’s historic first with the Dodgers, and pumped her fist in the air.
“Sitting in the pavilion, you always hope that you’ll be able to catch a ball,” Roman told The Athletic on Thursday. “But never in a million years would I have thought it would have been his ball.”
Within minutes, however, that storybook moment turned into a stressful and chaotic situation that left Roman and particularly her husband, Alexis Valenzuela, feeling pressured and possibly swindled by the Dodgers security staff.
As is customary with significant home run balls, there is a give-and-take negotiation between the team and the fan who catches it. The player will generally trade memorabilia and a meet-and-greet with the player in exchange for a ball that represents a meaningful personal achievement.
In this case, though, Roman and Valenzuela say the security staff separated them, pressured them, and left them little choice but to hand over the baseball for what they considered a low-ball offer. The Dodgers initially dangled two caps signed by Ohtani in exchange for a ball that an auction house representative told The Athletic would be worth at least $100,000.
Roman said the hardball tactics by team officials included the threat of refusing to authenticate the baseball if she decided to take it home. This was no trivial matter: A lack of authentication could significantly reduce the ball’s value, and place the onus on Roman to prove its authenticity.
Ambar Roman snagged Shohei Ohtani’s milestone home run ball but her interactions with the Dodgers security staff left her unsettled. (Courtesy: Ambar Roman)
“We’re not trying to extort anyone. It’s not that we’re money hungry,” Valenzuela said. “It’s just that it’s a special moment, it’s a special ball. I just think it’s fair for it to be equally rewarded.”
“I was just disappointed that a team that I hold so dear pulled a quote-unquote quick one on us.”
They left Dodger Stadium with two signed hats, a signed bat and ball, a slight bump after the opening offer of two signed hats.
They never met or talked to Ohtani, though in Ohtani’s postgame comments on the subject, according to the translation of interpreter Will Ireton, he seemed to suggest either that they had spoken or that they had communicated in some fashion. It was not immediately clear if that was a misunderstanding or if Ohtani was intending to communicate that he had gotten a message to the fan who caught the ball.
“I was able to talk to the fan, and was able to get it back,” Ohtani said through interpreter Will Ireton. “Obviously it’s a very special ball, a lot of feelings toward it, I’m very grateful that it’s back.”
The Dodgers, through a team spokesperson, declined to discuss the fans’ grievances. As for the negotiations, a team official told The Athletic: “The Dodgers are open to a further conversation with the fan about the transaction.”
The couple is not upset about what they received (or did not receive) as compensation for the valuable baseball. Roman expressed more contentment with what she received, while her husband believes a fairer deal could have been reached.
“They really took advantage of her,” Valenzuela said. “There were a bunch of (security) guys around her. They wouldn’t let me talk to her or give her any advice. There was no way for us to leave. They had her pretty much cornered in the back.”
Soon after the ball landed, a dozen or more security officials came to the couple’s seats. Surrounding fans told the couple to be smart. Many told them not to give the ball up easily. The security official told them they would “reward them” for catching the ball, according to the couple.
Valenzuela said he was kept at a distance from his wife by stadium security guards and told they couldn’t talk to each other. When they got to the Gold Glove Bar, the offer was made to Roman.
“They didn’t want him to influence my decision. At least that’s how I took it,” Roman said of being separated from Valenzuela. “… It was a little pressuring. Especially because it was like, ‘I need you to give me an answer like right now. You gotta make up your mind.’ It was a lot of pressure.”
The initial offer was two signed hats. Roman was overwhelmed, but she did follow up by asking if there was anything else the team could include. They offered to include a bat, and a ball, which she felt pressured to accept.
Those items were brought into the room, and the Ohtani home run ball was taken away. The couple was told they would be escorted out to their car, but eventually decided to exit on their own after the game.
The Dodgers have a memorabilia store at the club level of their ballpark. Within it, as the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday, is a foul ball hit by Ohtani in 2021. The ball is signed. And it is being sold for nearly $15,000. It provides a barometer for just how valuable Ohtani’s first home run ball would be.
This home run ball’s value, at minimum, is $100,000, said Chris Ivey, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions. Heritage has experience evaluating Ohtani memorabilia. He said the five items that the Dodgers gave the fans would be valued at around $1,000 each.
However, they would need authentication to be sold, and the couple said they did not receive authentication or confirmation that Ohtani actually signed it.
“This has all the ingredients to hit that number ($100,000) and go well beyond it, absolutely,” Ivy said.
This is the bounty the Dodgers traded to the fan for the home run ball. A team official said conversations remain ongoing. (Courtesy: Ambar Roman)
Both Roman and Valenzuela are big Dodgers fans. They are 28 years old and live in Whittier, Calif. They met in college, work together at a pipeline company. They will celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary next month. They’d been excited to go to a game and purchased tickets in the pavilion, a regular spot for the pair.
With it all said and done, they are happy that Ohtani has his ball. They agree with the fans who are appreciative of their selfless gesture. He hit the homer. It’s his memento to have.
But the reality is also not lost that the ball is valuable. Valenzuela said he felt as though the team could have shown them the same type of love and respect that they have given the club for years.
“Where was the Dodger love that we see every day, every time we go,” Valenzuela said. “It just disappeared. We were kind of left stranded. It’s not necessarily that we wanted a million. Just something nice. Take care of your fans. Especially when they got something that’s way more valuable.
They wanted to feel as though they had more agency in the process. That they could have discussed it together. And that the team would have offered to authenticate the ball. It felt as though there was a planned and coordinated effort to get them to give up the ball without much discussion or negotiation.
Nothing will take away how special it was to catch it. The moment, as captured on the Dodgers broadcast, was one of pure ecstasy for Roman and Valenzuela. He picked her up in his arms live on television as fans around them celebrated.
That will always be an important part of this story. They love the Dodgers. They love Ohtani. And neither wanted to hold the ball hostage from one of their favorite players.
But what was shown on the cameras was not reflective of the reality that followed for the couple. And they are still trying to reconcile how they were treated and see the positives in how it all played out.
“I don’t regret it,” Roman said. “If I would have kept the ball, what would it have been worth really (without the authentication)? I feel like, this at least, if he retires as a Hall of Famer or anything like that, I have this merch.”
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(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani: Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)