Alex Rodriguez might find himself in another dispute if he wants to recover the baseball he launched into the Green Monster seats for his 660th career home run.
Rodriguez tied Willie Mays for fourth place on Major League Baseball’s all-time home run list Friday as the New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox 3-2 at Fenway Park. The fan who caught the milestone homer, Mike Shuster of Warwick, R.I., apparently isn’t ready to surrender the baseball.
“I know he got paid $6 million just to hit the home run. … Maybe,” Shuster told the New York Post, alluding to the $6 million incentive A-Rod is fighting to secure from the Yankees based on the milestone. “If he wanted to take a picture with the ball, he’d be more than welcome, but I’m not giving it to him.”
As fate would have it, Shuster is a financial adviser. So he knows a thing or two about dealing with money. The 25-year-old Red Sox fan isn’t sure what it’ll take to pry the baseball from his grasps, though. He’s just kind of playing it by ear at this point.
“I wasn’t going to give it away,” Shuster told the Post after Friday’s game. “I think I can hold my own. I’m in sales. I’m going to go home and sleep on it and see what I can come up with.”
Shuster reportedly arrived late and bought the last single-seat ticket remaining atop the Monster. A fan sitting to Shuster’s left told the Post he would have thrown the baseball back onto the field, but that wasn’t in the cards. Shuster seemingly has bigger plans in mind.
“It’s a questionable ball,” Shuster told the Post. “Throwing it back definitely makes a statement, but that’s done all the time for a lot of things. I think something different should be done with this ball with greater significance. I’m not sure what that is yet. I thought about blowing the ball up and making a video of it.”
It sounds like A-Rod might need to open up his gaudy checkbook.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
