Carlo Mendoza with the Ohtani home run ball he snagged while eating nachos in Dodger Stadium’s Centerfield Plaza. (Photo: Carlo Mendoza/SCP Auctions)

Carlo Mendoza had to make a choice during Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. Enjoy some delicious Dodger Stadium nachos or launch into the bushes in the center-field concourse for a Shohei Ohtani home run ball.

Safe to say Mendoza made the right decision by ditching the nachos to snag a piece of arguably the greatest single-game performance in MLB history during the Los Angeles Dodgers’ win over the Milwaukee Brewers. And that call could end up being a seven-figure, life-changing decision.

The ball, the second of three Ohtani home runs that night, that Mendoza secured hit the auction block on Wednesday with a starting bid of $200,000 as part of SCP Auctions’ fall premier lot and will run through Nov. 22. Ohtani finished the night with three home runs at the plate and 10 strikeouts in six innings on the mound.

The auction house previously sold Freddie Freeman’s walk-off grand slam ball from Game 1 from last year’s World Series against the New York Yankees for $1.56 million. SCP is also known for selling Barry Bonds’ 756th career home run ball, which went for $752,467.20 to fashion designer Marc Ecko.

SCP estimates the Ohtani NLCS ball will sell for between $1 million and $2 million. For reference, the most expensive baseball of all time is currently Ohtani’s 50th home run ball from the 2024 season, which sold for $4.39 million last October through Goldin. On Tuesday, MLB Auctions sold the ball Ohtani used to get his first World Series strikeout as a pitcher for $175,010.

“He was dumbfounded,” SCP COO Mike Keys said about Mendoza’s good fortune. “He’s sitting there at the nacho place. The TV is there. He hears it. He hears the crowd. He looks up and the ball bounces right there and he’s going for the ball.

“He scraped up his leg real bad. And in fact, nobody really around him realized what was going on until after he grabbed it. He dove thinking that there would be a dog pile and there just wasn’t. … It’s almost like getting a lottery ticket.”

469 feet! 💣

Harold got a close-up look at the @Dodgers’ new plaque commemorating Shohei Ohtani’s 469 ft. homer from Game 4 of the NLCS! https://t.co/fXHuu2uDHb pic.twitter.com/yTWDpMg8so

— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) October 27, 2025

The ball, which officially traveled 469 feet, received a stamp in blue ink from Dodger Stadium staff with the Oct. 17 date in place. Keys said this isn’t the norm, but Mendoza had his MLB Passport and ball stamped to help authenticate the item and the moment. Mendoza took pictures shortly after snagging the baseball. Keys said Mendoza also snapped pictures with the fan who secured Ohtani’s third home run ball from that game.

The Dodger Stadium stamp on the NLCS ball going to auction. (Photo: SCP Auctions)

Normally, MLB’s official on-site authenticators would certify and affix a special tamper-proof sticker to any game-used item of note. But since this ball traveled so far and went beyond their line of sight from inside the stadium, they wouldn’t have been able to verify it.

SCP took several of its own steps to verify the authenticity of the Ohtani home run ball. Keys said the company had Mendoza write an affidavit that was notarized, along with undergoing a polygraph test, which Mendoza passed.

SCP will also auction off two Dodgers home run balls from Los Angeles’ Game 7 World Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays, according to Cllct. Blue Jays fans John and Matthew Bains, father and son, hauled in Miguel Rojas’ ninth-inning homer and Will Smith’s 11th-inning shot in the left field stands at Rogers Centre.

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Nov 5, 2025

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Larry Holder is a Senior Writer for The Athletic, focusing on the memorabilia and collectibles industry. He joined The Athletic in 2018 as a New Orleans columnist and shifted to covering the NFL in 2021. Holder chronicled the New Orleans Saints and the NFL for 19 seasons before his current role. Before joining The Athletic, he worked for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, CBSSports.com and the Biloxi (Miss.) Sun Herald. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryHolder