DETROIT, MICHIGAN - MAY 09: Albert Pujols #5 of the Los Angeles Angels hits a third inning solo home run to reach 2000 career RBI's while playing the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on May 09, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) The Detroit Tigers suffered a brutal 13-0 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Comerica Park on Thursday afternoon and it was a game in which history was made. In the third inning of Thursday’s contest in the Motor City, Angels first baseman Albert Pujols launched a solo HR to left field off Detroit Tigers pitcher Ryan Carpenter. The home run marked the 2,000th RBI of Pujols career, making him the third (or fifth depending on who you ask) player in the history of the major leagues to ever reach that mark. The biggest story now emerging from the historic event, however, is the fact that the Detroit Tigers fan who was lucky enough to catch the home run ball has decided to keep it. The man who caught the ball was 33-year-old Ely Hydes of Detroit. According to USA Today, Hydes made his decision to keep the baseball in part because of how he was treated by Detroit Tigers’ staff after catching the home run. USA Today references a Facebook post in which Hydes explained he was offered money for the ball and when he refused was told the ball would be worthless once he left the stadium with it. Pujols himself actually praised Hydes for taking the ball and gave him his blessing to keep it. ESPN quotes Pujols saying that “It’s a great memory for him. I mean we play this game for the fans, and it’s a piece of history that he’s going to have for the rest of his life.” Whenever you go to a baseball game nowadays it seems that if you’re fortunate to catch any sort of foul ball or home run, there’s a pressure to immediately find the nearest little kid and give it away to them. Personally, I praise Hydes’ decision to keep the ball. Hydes now holds a piece of baseball history and is enjoying what it means to him as a fan. He was just out at Comerica Park for a “beer and a game” as he told Fox Sports Detroit’s Trevor Thompson. What happens when the first ball you get as a fan happens to be a pretty big deal for the player who hit it? @IamTrevorT is on the case! #GreatGrabBud pic.twitter.com/1U7BCAUS50 — FOX Sports Detroit (@FOXSportsDet) May 9, 2019 A big congratulations again to Albert Pujols on reaching such a historic milestone and shoutout to Ely Hydes for being a great fan of the game of baseball. What do you think about Ely’s decision to keep the ball? What would you do if you caught a piece of baseball history? Feel free to let us know in the comments section down below.<doc-sep>DETROIT (WXYZ) — Tigers fan Ely Hydes says he plans to give Los Angeles Angels' Albert Pujols homerun baseball to the Hall of Fame "if they want it." Initially, Hydes refused to give back the ball after Tigers security tried to offer him free paraphernalia in exchange. UPDATE: Hydes says he plans to give the ball to the Hall of Fame if they want it. @PujolsFive said after Thursday’s game that he was cool with Hydes keeping it. Hydes tells me it would be “a gift from the Hydes family and the people of Detroit” to the HOF @wxyzdetroit ⬇️ https://t.co/CAE0XoVxIQ — Jenn Schanz (@JennSchanzWXYZ) May 11, 2019 “I was surprised. And we had security sitting by us and we heard them say ‘he’s not giving it up’ over the radio,” said Tigers’ fan Jessica Burley, who was at Thursday’s game. The 33-year-old law student living in Detroit did offer to give the ball to Pujols, but the first baseman insisted he was okay with the fan keeping the home run ball that marked his 2,000th career RBI. Hydes told 7 Action News reporter Jen Schanz he owed Pujols "the respect and courtesy to give him the first shot at it." He said the ball would be a gift to the Hall of Fame “donated in the name of Cyrus Arlo Maloney and the people of Detroit. Cyrus was his young son who passed away recently and loved baseball. Pujols reached the milestone on a solo home run in the 3rd inning of the Angels' 13-0 win over the Tigers on Thursday.<doc-sep>It’s tough to argue with that logic. Tigers fan Ely Hydes caught Albert Pujols’ third-inning home run ball that gave the slugger 2,000 RBIs and is refusing to give it back for the simplest of reasons. “I just came here for a beer and a game,” Hydes told Fox Sports Detroit. Hydes reportedly was displeased with the way Tigers security and personnel handled negotiations for the ball. Hydes told the station he might give it to his brother. “I did not know it when it was hit,” Hydes said of the significance of the ball. “I had just gotten to my seat, I had been there like eight seconds and boom. I know about it now, obviously. I don’t know it’s been a rat race so far, but I’ve got a brother who’s a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan so I might give him the best gift ever.” Pujols, who played the first 11 seasons of his career with the Cardinals, had an easygoing attitude on the fate of the ball. “We play this game for the fans, too, and if they want to keep it, I think they have the right,” Pujols said after the Angels’ 13-0 win. “I just hope he can enjoy.”<doc-sep>The Detroit Tigers fan who corralled the home run baseball that cemented Albert Pujols' 2,000th career RBI on Thursday made headlines when he refused to hand the historic ball over to Major League Baseball, and on Friday he took to Facebook to detail his experiences with media, Comerica Park and Tigers staff. Ely Hydes made national headlines on Thursday when he chose to keep the ball despite generous efforts from both the Tigers and Angels, even though MLB would not authenticate the ball once he left the park. "The ball is right here on my coffee table," Hydes wrote in a Facebook post on Friday. Read More: Tigers fan who got Albert Pujols' historic ball won't give it back We're all going to drink more over the next decade, study says Hydes, 33, said he considered it an honor to catch the ball "and tried to act all day with the honor I thought it obligated me to." Pujols, who signed with the Angels in 2012, is the third player in MLB's live-ball era to reach 2,000 RBIs. However, Hydes wrote that while "people were so cynical over the ball," he allowed people to hold it and pose for pictures with it. Additionally, Hydes explained that he didn't choose to keep the ball out of a sense of entitlement and lamented the way he was treated by "Tigers management." "I had the best of intentions. This ball will most likely end up in the Hall of Fame. I'm sorry if no one can 'authenticate' it, but the only reason I ended up with it is because Tigers management treated me so terribly." When asked Friday why the ball was not authenticated, Ron Colangelo, Tigers vice president of communications, referred the Free Press to Matt Bourne, MLB senior vice president of communications. Bourne said in an email he's looking into the matter. In a phone interview with Kyle Bogenschutz of 97.1 FM The Ticket (WXYT-FM) on Thursday, Hydes said he was approached by park security and Tigers organization representatives who seemed to want him to give the ball up right away. Hydes told Bogenschutz that he "tried to do the right thing" and wanted time to process what just happened, but didn't like how he was treated "like an opportunist." "I tried to do the right thing." Colangelo said there were conversations with members from the Comerica Park operations and security staffs who interacted with Hydes, and "we have no doubt that our staff conducted themselves in a professional manner when speaking with the guest." "After generous offers of both Angels and Tigers autographed memorabilia," Colangelo said, "including a meet-and-greet with Albert Pujols, our staff informed the guest that a decision needed to be reached as the Angels would be leaving the ballpark soon after the game ended. The guest decided he wanted to keep the ball, and our staff left the area." Hydes said he needed to think about this and process what just happened, was told that if he walked away MLB couldn't authenticate the ball, and "when you walk out of the park, the ball's worth nothing, so think about that." “Honestly, if they were just cool about it I would’ve just given them the ball,” Hydes said. “I don’t want money off of this, I was offered five and ten thousand dollars as I walked out of the stadium, I swear to God… I just couldn’t take being treated like a garbage bag for catching a baseball.” Hydes also shouted out a number of local media, at one point praising some of the sports broadcasters from 97.1, but also calling his interview with Bogenschutz "hostile." "Other than that, I'm glad it happened to me," Hydes wrote, adding that he's glad the ball will be staying in Detroit. For his part, Pujols told media that he thinks Hydes has the right to keep the ball as a piece of history. "I think he was given a little hard time and I told the guys, just you know, just leave it. Just let him have it, I think he can have a great piece of history with him, you know. When he look at the ball he can remember... this game, and I don't fight about it. You know, I think we play this game for the fans too and if they want to keep it, I think they have a right to. I just hope, you know, that he can enjoy it," Pujols told media. He added that he wouldn't "pay a penny" for the ball. "He can have it," Pujols said. "He can have that piece of history. It's for the fans, you know, that we play for." In his post, Hydes offered up a "big thank you" to Pujols and called the player a class act. "You wouldn't pay me a penny for the ball and I wouldn't take a penny. I'd be more likely to give it up over Beers in LA," he wrote. Contact Aleanna Siacon: ASiacon@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter: @AleannaSiacon.<doc-sep>
Detroit — Ely Hydes just wanted a moment to collect himself and give it some thought, and the Tigers' staff didn't give him that. And so, said Hydes, that is the reason why he walked out of Comerica Park on Thursday afternoon with the baseball representing Los Angeles Angels slugger Albert Pujols' 2,000th career RBI. One day later, given some time to think it over, Hydes said he has changed his mind. He plans to give the ball to Pujols or the National Baseball Hall of Fame. "I slept on it," Hydes told The Detroit News over the phone on Friday night. "All I ever wanted was to sleep on it. I slept on it and I woke up and I think (Pujols) is a class act. "He's not my player, he's not my guy, I don't deserve the ball. "I reconsidered. One-hundred percent, I'm either going to give it to Pujols or to the Hall of Fame." And before you ask, no, this isn't a cash grab. "I don't want any money," Hydes said. Hydes, who attended Thursday's game with two buddies he met in the Peace Corps, caught Pujols' third-inning home run. He didn't immediately know the significance of the home run until the Tigers PA announcer made an announcement that Pujols had become the third official member of MLB's 2,000-RBI club, and also when ballpark security immediately began to swarm him. The Tigers' security staff wanted the ball for Pujols, and made one offer after another — negotiations started with a Pujols signed ball and ended with a Pujols signed ball, jersey, meet-and-greet and some memorabilia from Tigers star Miguel Cabrera. Hydes turned all that down, in large part, he said, because he felt the Tigers were pressuring him to turn the ball over. A "hard sell," Hydes said. The Tigers disputed that Thursday, and again Friday in a statement from vice president of communications Ron Colangelo, who was not present for the interactions between Hydes and Tigers staff on Thursday. "We spoke with members from the Comerica Park operations and security staffs that had contact with the guest, and we have no doubt that our staff conducted themselves in a professional manner when speaking with the guest," Colangelo said Friday. "After generous offers of both Angels and Tigers autographed memorabilia, including a meet-and-greet with Albert Pujols, our staff informed the guest that a decision needed to be reached as the Angels would be leaving the ballpark soon after the game ended. "The guest decided he wanted to keep the ball, and our staff left the area." Hydes originally thought he might give the ball to his brother, a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals (Pujols’ first team), or Ely's soon-to-be-born child. He never did decide; he just knew he was going to hold on to the ball — the first ball he's ever caught at a major-league game — because, he felt, the Tigers' staff tried too hard to get him to give up the ball. The Tigers staff, Hydes said, told him repeatedly they couldn't authenticate the ball — balls into the stands can't be officially authenticated because of chain-of-custody concerns — and therefore the ball was worthless on the open market. That pitch backfired, as Hydes felt insulted that they assumed it was all about the money to him. Hydes, though, was impressed after the game — a 13-0 Angels win over the Tigers — when Pujols was very gracious, saying it was Hydes' right to keep the baseball. And that seemed to sway Hydes' decision, and he's trying to reach out to Pujols to find a way to get him the ball. Meanwhile, the whole ordeal has netted Hydes some impressive attention and also some swag, too. He made a comment in The Detroit News article Thursday about his love of Hebrew National hot dogs, and Hebrew National was so appreciative, it is sending him a summer's supply of dogs, plus other swag, including a company softball-team jersey. "I was high on adrenaline," Hydes said Friday, looking back on the whole ordeal, which led to dozens of interview requests — local and national — and at least one Angels fan reaching out to offer him $25,000 for the ball. "I caught a baseball, and I walked out." tpaul@detroitnews.com Twitter: @tonypaul1984