Dodgers fan who caught Ohtani's first HR ball claims she was PRESSURED by team to give it back

[pwaldo]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ml...bar-roman.html

A lifelong LA Dodgers fan who caught Shohei Ohtani's first home-run ball for the team claims she was pressured into handing the $100,000 item back to him.

Ohtani finally got off the mark for the Dodgers on Wednesday night, with the $700million recruit's first home run on his ninth LA outing sealing a 5-4 win over the San Francisco Giants.

After leaving his bat at 105.6mph and landing 430 feet away in the crowd, Dodgers fan Ambar Roman, 28, managed to retrieve it while her husband and many others were searching for it on the ground.

There are few more prestigious items for a baseball fan to get their hands on than Ohtani's first homer ball in LA. The two-way sensation is now the biggest star in the sport by some distance after signing his record $700m deal with the Dodgers in December.

However, in an interview with The Athletic, Roman explained how her jackpot moment quickly turned sour.

Straight after Ohtani's home run, Dodgers security staff are said to have swarmed Roman and her husband Alexis Valenzuela, with other fans in close proximity urging them to not give up the ball easily.

Security told the couple they would 'reward them' for catching the ball, with give-and-take negotiations between fans and players looking to retrieve meaningful objects custom in the sport.

Yet after being separated from Valenzuela, Roman says she was then pressured into handing the ball over after LA officials, who resorted to ruthless measures to get it back for Ohtani.

One of those tactics included the threat of refusing to authenticate it, a move which would render the ball - which is valued at a minimum of $100,000 - worthless if she chose to take it home and sell it.

They also dangled two Dodgers caps signed by Ohtani in front of Roman, before she eventually accepted a trade which also included a signed bat and ball. The five items she left with are understood to be worth a combined $5,000.

'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.'

After the game, Ohtani is quoted as saying through his interpreter that he had managed to get his first Dodgers homer ball back after speaking with Roman himself.

'I was able to talk to the fan, and was able to get it back,' he is quoted as saying. 'Obviously it’s a very special ball, a lot of feelings toward it, I’m very grateful that it’s back.'

According to Roman, though, they never met LA's new two-way sensation on the night. It is unclear whether Ohtani's interpreter mistranslated his comments.

Instead, she was ushered into a room without her husband and forced into the trade after being left with no other option but to accept the Dodgers' offer.

'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.'

[reickholt]

Sad!

[doniceage]

Very sad indeed and it terrible that an organization would do that. Let the player reach out if he wants the ball that bad.

DOn

[ethunder]

I’m not getting up from my seat if I catch that ball. I’m also not trading for a signed hat! They should get season tickets.

[OriolesFan]

The DODGERS need HELP !!! They SHOULD NEVER treat fans like they did to her. The IDEA of what to do with the H R BALL of OHANTI should TOTALLY be her's, NO PRESSURE !!! If they wanted it that bad, they should of ASKED HER to take some time and think of what she'd want,if she would be willing to let it go. THEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER FORCED HER like they did.