The family of a young boy, whose father caught him a home run ball during a Philadelphia Phillies-Miami Marlins game on Friday, has spoken out after they had to give the ball away to a woman who had angrily demanded it was hers.
Speaking to NBC10 Philadelphia on Saturday, Drew Feltwell explained that he had caught the ball at the game on Friday evening to give to his son Lincoln during his birthday week.
Feltwell said: “We were there to get a home run ball, so I thought we had accomplished this great thing and putting it in his glove meant a lot and she was just so adamant and loud and yelling and persistent, and I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.”
Why It Matters
The incident sparked fury among the crowd in the stadium, and went viral on social media. Members of the audience reportedly leapt to defend the young boy, informing the Marlins staff what had happened to ensure the boy got his ball.
This dispute over the ball took place just days after another memorabilia-snatching moment at the U.S. Open.
A man, identified by internet sleuths as Piotr Szczerek, the millionaire owner of paving company Drogbruk, took tennis player Kamil Majchrzak’s hat from a young fan in the crowd and was widely criticized for the act.
The woman (left) who took the ball away from Lincoln (right), whose father had given it to him after the Phillies tossed the home run ball into the stands
The woman (left) who took the ball away from Lincoln (right), whose father had given it to him after the Phillies tossed the home run ball into the stands
NBC Sports Philadelphia/FOX Sports
What To Know
In the fourth inning of the game, Philadelphia Phillies’ Harrison Bader hit a home run ball into the left field stands at loanDepot Park, the ballpark of the Miami Marlins.
In a video shared by Fox Sports on the social media platform X, several fans scrambled for the ball and eventually a man wearing Phillies gear stood up with it in hand and walked over and gave it to a boy and hugged him.
A woman then came up to the man shortly after, gripped his arm and started speaking to him, starting what looked like a dispute over who the ball belonged to.
Feltwell told NBC10 Philadelphia: “The ball was already in his glove, and she just wouldn’t stop, and I’m literally leaning back as she’s in my face yelling and yelling and yelling.”
“I pretty much just wanted her to go away and I had a fork in the road – either do something I was probably going to regret or be Dad and show him how to de-escalate a situation,” he added, gesturing to his son.
In the background of the footage, the crowd can be heard booing the interaction as the man eventually hands the ball over to the woman and she walks away.
Feltwell told NBC10 Philadelphia that he had quickly picked up the ball, and that a number of other hands had reached to grab the ball too, but they were “half a second” after him. It wasn’t clear from videos circulating on social media who initially secured the ball when it landed.
“I wasn’t very happy that we had to give to her, but we can’t win, she was going to get it anyways,” Lincoln told NBC10 Philadelphia.
“It was the right thing, we just wanted her to go away,” Feltwell added.
He said, as the woman was shouting at them, members of the crowd around them told her to go back to her seat, and started calling her “Karen” – a reference to well-known meme making fun of a specific type of woman, who exhibits behaviors that stem from privilege, and are thought to be irritating and entitled.
“You could feel the depth of how many ‘boos’ from the stadium,” Feltwell said, placing a hand on his chest.
He added that when the woman returned to her seat, a man, who Feltwell said could have been her husband, was covering his head as the “boos” grew.
“Eventually he got up and started walking away, and she started hollering at him for something and she even got up and was yelling and pointing, and he just walked away,” Feltwell told NBC10 Philadelphia. “She finally got up and stormed off,” he added.
After the incident, Feltwell said they just continued to enjoy the game, and two members of the crowd then came to give Lincoln a ball, which Feltwell said was “just amazing.”
“They were Marlins fans and we’re all in Phillies gear and nobody cared, it was just about giving him a ball to take home and I thought that was amazing,” he said.
He added that other members of the crowd must have told the Marlins’ staff about what had happened, as later, a member of Marlins’ staff gave the boy a “goodie bag” containing a baseball, hat, shirt, pin and other gifts.
loanDepot park posted a video of the interaction on X, commenting: “Not under our roof.” The Miami Marlins also shared the post, adding: “Especially not on your birthday.”
In the background of the footage, the crowd can be heard cheering as the boy smiles at the camera.
Lincoln was also later invited to meet Bader following the Phillies’ 9-3 win over the Miami Marlins, and was given a signed bat from the center fielder.
What People Are Saying
Feltwell told NBC10 Philadelphia: “At first, I felt like super Dad, I got the ball for him, I could walk back and put it in his glove.”
He added: “Every moment around my kids is a potential teaching moment so I tried to keep that mentality and I guess that shined through.”
Marcus Lemonis, Camping World CEO and star of CNBC reality TV show “The Profit,” wrote on X: “I’ll send this young man and his family to the @MLB World Series on me. Oh and you just won an RV as well.”
This article contains reporting from The Associated Press.