The Fan That Caught Albert Pujols's 703rd Home Run Ball Screwed Up BIG TIME

We all saw Albert Pujols hit 703 earlier this week, likely his last regular season homer ever. This young fan was lucky enough to stick his hand up and snag that ball in Pittsburgh.

He's holding the holy grail for Pujols homers. That is a house down payment, paying off debts, a new car, vacation spot, that ball could pay for it all. Except for the ONE thing that you can't do once you catch a milestone home run ball.....leave the stadium without getting it authenticated. 

That kills the value because now you can't verify and confirm that the ball he has is THE home run ball. MLB has authenticators at their ballgames to authenticate balls, bats, helmets, uniforms, anything that goes on the field. They turn around and sell it with the QR code on it and you can look up all the information on the equipment. You'll see it when a ball gets fouled off to the screen or a bat gets broken, they hand it to a guy in the well near the dugout and they authenticate it there. But again, once you leave the ballpark without getting it authenticated you are screwed, which is exactly what this guy did. 

He mentioned that he wanted to come back the next day and get it authenticated, that isn't how it works buddy! How do they know you didn't switch it out with a random foul ball you had at home? This is a disaster for this guy. It's quite literally the one thing you can't do once you catch the ball. Once you leave the park there is nothing they can do about it anymore, so good luck getting the full value that you were hoping for.

So congrats to this lucky fan on his brand new paper weight and thank you for teaching a lesson to everyone else looking to catch thousands of dollars at a baseball game!