Shohei Ohtani's dominance was revealed once again at auction.
ESPN reported on the 24th (Korean time) that the uniform Ohtani wore in this year's World Baseball Classic (WBC) sold for $1,500,000.10 (about 2.2 billion won). According to ESPN, it was the uniform he wore in the WBC first-round game against Taiwan. At the time, Ohtani had a huge game, going 3-for-4 with five RBIs, including a grand slam, leading to a 13-0 victory by seven-inning mercy rule.
The outlet noted that this uniform is the highest price ever paid for an Ohtani uniform on MLB Auction. In a seven-day auction, the uniform with Ohtani's number 16 recorded an astonishing 298 bids. It added that this is a significant increase compared with the uniform Ohtani wore in the 2023 WBC game against Australia, which sold for $126,100 (190 million won) three years ago.
The outlet also highlighted the popularity of Ohtani's baseball cards. It reported that in the past three months, two cards featuring patches from uniforms Ohtani wore in games and his handwritten signature surpassed $2 million at auction. One was a card that sold for $3 million at the Crimas Mix event, and the other was a card of Ohtani and Aaron Judge that sold for $2.16 million on March 21. Japan, with Ohtani, lost to Venezuela in the WBC quarterfinals, failing to win the tournament for a second consecutive time. However, Ohtani posted a .462 batting average (6 hits in 13 at-bats) with three home runs, seven RBIs and a 1.231 OPS.
Having achieved the unprecedented feat of unanimous MVP for three consecutive years, Ohtani is preparing for the season while once again attempting to play both pitcher and hitter this year. In a spring training exhibition game on the 19th, he made his first pitching appearance of the spring at a game against the San Francisco Giants, throwing 4 1/3 innings with one hit allowed, one hit by pitch, two walks, four strikeouts and no runs. He has appeared in only three games at the plate so far, but in the March 23 game he started to warm up by going 1-for-3 with three RBIs.
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