Dodgers have perfect response to 'ruining baseball' argument after rival's Shohei Ohtani antics

The Los Angeles Dodgers' greatest rivals in recent years are the San Diego Padres and their greatest historical rivals are the San Francisco Giants, but there's no love lost between them and the Arizona Diamondbacks either.

LA doesn't play the Giants or D-backs with the exact same animosity they seem to with the Padres, but Arizona was responsible for ousting the Dodgers from the postseason in 2023, and then they sold framed pictures of Clayton Kershaw's demise in the NLDS, so feelings aren't exactly warm and fuzzy.

But the Diamondbacks clearly aren't above trying to capitalize on the Dodgers' dominance and popularity. On Wednesday, Fredo Cervantes of The Sporting Tribune noted that the D-backs were selling an authenticated Shohei Ohtani two-run triple ball from the night prior ... for $10,000. And "32% of all sales are donated to the D-Backs Foundation, while the remaining 68% stays with the team."

So the Diamondbacks intentionally salvaged a ball an opposing player hit ... in a game Arizona went on to lose ... and are giving less than 1/3 of it to charity? What was all that about the Dodgers ruining baseball?

Diamondbacks piggybacking off Dodgers' fame by selling Shohei Ohtani memorabilia

It's one thing for a team to sell their opposition's jerseys in their team store (which is controversial, for some reason), and it's another to try to net $10,000 from a souvenir that directly led to your team's loss. Ohtani hit that triple off of Arizona starter Michael Soroka; we wonder what he thinks about this.

It's hard to fully begrudge the Diamondbacks' marketing/sales team, though. They almost certainly knew it would be a weird look, but what does it matter to them if the team gets to keep almost $7,000 in a sale?

The Dodgers' popularity — Ohtani's popularity specifically, in this case — has been an overwhelmingly good thing for the sport as a whole. Ticket prices go up when the Dodgers visit other stadiums. Teams that sell opposing teams' jerseys presumably make a nice amount when the Dodgers are in town (four Dodgers occupied Nike's jersey sales leaderboard between the 2025 World Series and Opening Day 2026). The Diamondbacks are probably going to make $10,000 on a baseball hit by a Dodgers player.

A rising tide lifts all boats, as the saying goes, and the Diamondbacks have all but proven that with this stunt.

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