New York: Controversial slugger Alex Rodriguez got the home run ball he smashed for his 3,000th career hit after all on Friday after the New York Yankees made a deal with the fan who caught it.

Zack Hample presented the ball to Rodriguez prior to the Yankees’ home game against Tampa Bay. The Yankees will donate $150,000 (Dh550,818) to Pitch In For Baseball, a charity which Hample has supported since 2009 that provides equipment and promotes youth baseball in underprivileged areas around the world.

Rodriguez also gave him a signed jersey and bat.

Rodriguez became just the 29th Major League Baseball player to reach 3,000 hits when he belted a homer against Detroit at Yankee Stadium on June 19.

Hample, a collector who says he has caught more than 30 home run balls - and snagged some 8,000 overall, including foul balls, batting practice balls and out-of-play balls thrown to him by players or field attendants - initially said he didn’t plan to give the ball to Rodriguez.

On Friday he said he was sorry about “a couple of stupid things, negative things” he said about Rodriguez on Twitter.

“I have a PhD in saying dumb things over the years,” Rodriguez responded.

A-Rod is back this season after serving a 162-game suspension for doping violations linked to the Biogenesis steroid scandal.

The episode wasn’t Rodriguez’s first brush with doping. In 2009, he had admitted to using banned performance-enhancing substances from 2001 to 2003 while with the Texas Rangers.

Since returning this season, Rodriguez has been gradually winning back once-hostile fans, but response to his achievement of a spate of milestones has been mixed.

On Friday, however, it was announced that the Yankees and Rodriguez had resolved a disagreement over financial bonuses due to him for historic statistical accomplishments.

Since May, Rodriguez and the team had been at odds over a $6 million bonus payment that he believed he was owed for tying Willie Mays for fourth on the all-time home run list.

The Yankees had argued the bonus was at their discretion, and they opted out because his drug-tainted past means the achievement isn’t marketable.

In a deal announced jointly by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, the Yankees have agreed to pay $3.5 million to charity.