Apple CEO says company paying Indians' bullpen 'ransom'

Apple CEO Tim Cook says his company will pick up the tab and pay the "ransom" demanded by the Indians bullpen for a home run ball.

When Indians slugger Brandon Moss hit his 100th career home run last week in Kansas City, the ball landed in the visitors bullpen at Kauffman Stadium. Moss was then sent an itemized list -- scribbled on a sheet of paper -- by Cleveland's relievers, who demanded several Apple products including iPads, iPhones and watches in exchange for his personal souvenir.

The note was signed at the bottom, "You get the ball when we get these items!''

Last week, the Indians tweeted out an image of the "ransom note."

On Monday, Cook said at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco that the company would help Moss and pay for the trendy gadgets.

"It's a shopping list for the Apple Store," Cook said, according to Bloomberg.com. "Brandon would have had to raid an Apple Store to get that ball back. That didn't seem quite right to us. And, so, what we're gonna do, is we're gonna pay the ransom."

An Indians spokesman said an Apple representative came to Cleveland on Friday to retrieve the ball, which Cook held up at the conference as the bullpen's "note" was shown on a screen behind him.

"I saw they caught the ball, but they said, 'No, no, no,'" Moss said, according to Cleveland.com. "Then I see the list and I said, 'I think I can do none of this. This is like $10 grand worth of stuff. I would have rather a fan caught the ball.'"

It's not yet known when the pitcher and bullpen catchers will get their gifts.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.