June 5th, 2017 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka If someone walked up to you and handed you $100,000 – no questions asked – and you had 40,000 witnesses to its legitimacy, you would give it back, right?
Laugh if you will, but that’s exactly what Scott Steffel, a 23-year-old graphic design student at Cal State Fullerton, did on Saturday night.
…sort of.
Steffel was at Angel Stadium just down the 57 Freeway from his college campus to take in the game between the Minnesota Twins and the Angels with his father and brother, just as he had done for the last week and roughly 200 times before in his young life. In other words, Steffel is about as die-hard of an Angel fan as you can get. But this game was extra special for the Steffels because future Hall of Famer Albert Pujols was sitting on career home run number 599, which they had personally witnessed him hit four days earlier, and they weren’t about to miss number 600.
Like many in attendance hoping to witness history, Steffel brought his glove with him on Saturday night on the near impossible 40,000-to-one chance that he might catch the ball that would put Pujols into the extremely elite 600 home run club.
Pulojs hit it and Steffel caught it … and it was a grand slam to boot.
“Sill can’t breathe, an unbelievable moment for Albert Pujols, and to be the guy to catch it, I can’t believe it,” Steffel told Fox Sports West’s Alex Curry. “I saw him hit the ball, I took a couple steps back, put my glove up – so many people around me – felt the ball land in my glove, closed it and held on tight. I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it.”
Believe it.
Twenty-three-year-old Angel fan Scott Steffel proudly shows off Albert Pujols’ 600th career home run ball, which he caught during the bottom of the fourth inning on Saturday night.
(Photo credit – Chris Withers)
After catching the historic ball, Steffel, his father and brother were quickly whisked away by stadium employees for obvious safety reasons. It was then that the young Angel fan shocked everybody when he told Angels officials that he wanted to give the ball back to Pujols – just hand it back to him – and he did just that on the field shortly after the 7-2 Halos win.
Some memorabilia experts claim that Pujols’ 600th home run ball might have been worth between $100,000 and $200,000. But instead, true Angel fan Scott Steffel gave it back to Albert, saying “Well deserved. Congratulations.”
(Video capture courtesy of Fox Sports West – Click on image to view video)
Although some may consider Steffel out of his mind for giving back a ball that could have fetched upwards of $100,000, others – many, in fact – applaud him for his generous and noble gesture that only a true baseball fan would understand. And although we will probably never know exactly what it was or is, there is a very good chance that the Angels – and perhaps even Albert Pujols himself – may have given the young graphic design student from nearby Cal State Fullerton some sort of reward for his generosity. As such, there’s also a very good chance that this isn’t the end of this story.
Well played, Scott. Well played indeed.
Posted in 
Call me greedy, but I put that ball right next to my autographed, Mickey Mantle ball. Oh, I guess 1 to 2 hundred thousand might pry the Pujols ball away from me.
Well at least Scott has a story to tell the Grandkids, like some guys can tell how they laid down a Hundred Grand on the craps table. Hope the Angels at least give season tickets to the true fan and his family, including parking passes!
Good for Scott. The ball meant more to Albert than him and Scott displayed an integrity we all should have. Gave it back with no strings attached.
“As such, there’s also a very good chance that this isn’t the end of this story.” I’m sure there will be more to the story and it will be a deserving a reward that a true baseball fan will remember for a lifetime.
I’m a Yankee fan to the core, but when Derek Jeter homered for #3,000, and that fan gave the ball to Jeter, I thought, What a schmuck. Even my dad, from whom I got my Yankee fandom, would have called that fan a schmuck. I would have, in Jeter’s case or Pujols’ case, have sold the ball to the highest bidder, then given 5% to a charity of their choice.
I don’t know what I would have done and will never have to wrestle with such a decision.
I don’t see those fans as being schmucks, that is stupid or foolish. They did for themselves what was considered to be the right thing to do. When Scott returned to ball to Albert that day at Angel Stadium, character was spelled “Scott”. It took a remarkable young man to do that.
I don’t see that as being greedy Boxout nor do I see the kid as a schmuck. I also wouldn’t consider it the right thing, that a kid making very little money should give a collectible item that he legally and rightfully acquired by virtue of purchasing a license to be in the proximity and was fortunate enough to end up with the ball, nor should he be expected to give the ball to a man making thousands of dollars per inning, whether he plays or not.
Baseballs hit outside of the field belong to the recipient, regardless of it being a milestone. I would think the young man was ill-advised to give up such a valuable collectible and it certainly doesn’t belong to Puljos nor does he have the right to lay any claim to it. If it has value to him he can buy it from the young man who owned it’s rights. To suggest otherwise is selfish in the interest of a very rich man at the expense of a poor young man.
I don’t recall any information here, or elsewhere, regarding the Steffel family’s financial status.
So you are saying you support the idea of a young man giving away a fortune…to a man who is making a 1/4 billion dollars playing baseball?