Fan Who Caught Elly De La Cruz’s First MLB HR Gets Amazing Reward After Giving It Back

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Earlier this week, Major League Baseball welcomed its newest budding star in the form of Elly De La Cruz, the highly-touted prospect who was called up by the Cincinnati Reds after a stellar showing with the team’s AAA affiliate in Louisville.

The switch-hitting shortstop made his MLB debut on Tuesday, but he really announced his grand arrival when the Reds faced off against the Dodgers on Wednesday night in a game where he opened up the scoring for the home team with an absolutely monster 458-foot home run that landed in the last row of the stands in right field at Great American Ball Park.

That dinger is likely the first of many the 21-year-old phenom will end up hitting over the course of what is poised to be a stellar career, and Darren Rovell estimated whoever tracked it down was likely in possession of a baseball worth at least $10,000.

With that said, De La Cruz was obviously interested in gaining possession of that particular memento, and the Reds wasted no time sending some representatives out into the bleachers to negotiate with Alex French, the high school football player who was lucky enough to snag it after bounced off of his hand when he tried to catch it.

French ultimately agreed to give the ball back to the man who hit it, which led to the two of them meeting up after the game so De La Cruz could give him an autographed bat and not only pose for a picture with him but his entire group of friends in a Squad Photo for the ages.

It’s hard to imagine that crew envisioned the night would pan out how it did when they made the trek to the ballpark, but it’s awesome to see everyone involved was ultimately able to walk away with everything they could’ve wanted.