{"id":686561,"date":"2026-04-30T08:51:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:51:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/686561\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T08:51:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:51:16","slug":"cleveland-guardians-fan-max-quinn-apologizes-for-snatching-home-run-ball-from-11-year-old-girl-in-viral-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/686561\/","title":{"rendered":"Cleveland Guardians fan Max Quinn apologizes for snatching home run ball from 11-year-old girl in viral video"},"content":{"rendered":"

The adult Cleveland Guardians fan who ripped a home run ball away from an 11-year-old girl during Monday\u2019s game<\/a> acknowledged it was a \u201cbad decision\u201d as he faces a wave of online backlash.<\/p>\n

Max Quinn said it was a \u201cheat-of-the-moment thing\u201d while discussing his actions during the bottom of the fifth inning after the Guardians\u2019 Daniel Schneemann hit a two-run home run to right field at Progressive Field on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so utterly sorry for everything that\u2019s transpired,\u201d Quinn told WJW on Wednesday<\/a>. \u201cI made a bad decision; a lot of bad decisions. I\u2019m paying for it online.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Quinn said it was a \u201cheat-of-the-moment thing\u201d when he ripped a home run ball away from an 11-year-old girl during Monday\u2019s game. Fox8<\/p>\n

The viral video \u2014 which was captured by the Rays broadcast<\/a> \u2014 showed Quinn bobbling the home run catch before the souvenir landed near a young girl, Evelyn, who was coming down the steps to try and get the ball, only for Quinn to run over and snatch it away.<\/p>\n

Quinn insisted he \u201cdidn\u2019t realize it was a little girl\u201d at the time, saying all he could see was an outstretched glove going for the ball.<\/p>\n

The 11-year-old\u2019s younger brother approached Quinn and asked for the ball back \u2014 a request Quinn flatly refused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made a lot of mistakes that night,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Cleveland Guardians fan said he didn\u2019t realize the severity of what he had done until he got back to his seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard it from the fans and the people. \u2026 I was sitting there, and I\u2019m like, \u2018I won\u2019t be able to sleep at night if I don\u2019t give this ball back,’\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

The viral video \u2014 which was captured by the Rays broadcast \u2014 showed Quinn bobbling the home run catch before the souvenir landed near a young girl, Evelyn, who was coming down the steps to try and get the ball, only for Quinn to run over and snatch it away. Fox8<\/p>\n

Quinn eventually returned the ball to Evelyn after realizing his blunder, but acknowledged he should have done so immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t do it in a timely fashion. I didn\u2019t do it in the right way. If I could do it all over again, I would have just grabbed it, given it to her and been done with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The fallout, however, didn\u2019t end with the ball being returned. <\/p>\n

Quinn\u2019s store, Uncover Vintage in Lakewood, was bombarded with 1-star Google reviews following the incident, which were later removed, and he was forced to delete his social media accounts because of threats and harassment he\u2019s received, WJW reported.<\/p>\n

Quinn said he didn\u2019t realize the severity of what he had done until he got back to his seat. Fox8<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a rough 24 hours \u2014 36 hours,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve also learned the internet is a very mean, scary place. A lot of people have said a lot of really mean things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn said he\u2019s \u201ctried to block it out and get away from it,\u201d but people are still finding ways to contact him.<\/p>\n

While the incident set off a firestorm online, Evelyn said she forgives him for the mistake. <\/p>\n

Appearing in a recorded video shown to him during his interview with WJW, Evelyn thanked him for giving the ball back and hoped others would follow her lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi Max, thanks for giving us the ball back. We forgive you for it,\u201d Evelyn said. \u201cWe know the internet has been going wild over this. We hope they forgive you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn insisted he \u201cdidn\u2019t realize it was a little girl\u201d at the time, saying all he could see was an outstretched glove going for the ball. Fox8<\/p>\n

Evelyn\u2019s mom Nikki DeVore appeared on a local radio show earlier Wednesday, where she also said they have \u201cno ill feelings\u201d towards Quinn and pleaded with others to stop harassing him over his mistake, WJW reported.<\/p>\n

Rays reporter Ryan Bass\u00a0delivered baseballs to Evelyn<\/a> and her brother\u00a0<\/a>after the Tampa Bay broadcasters witnessed the now-infamous moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cCleveland Mom Here,\u201d\u00a0DeVore wrote<\/a>\u00a0in a separate post on the Tampa Bay Rays Fan Club Facebook page. \u201cYou all watched the man steal the ball from my daughter. You know my son went to ask him for the ball, which was so brave. I just have to say thank you to Tampa for broadcasting it, when the Cleveland broadcast cut to puppies rather than show the man stealing the ball from a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot thank [Rays reporter] Ryan [Bass] and Tampa enough for making things right. Thank you all for looking out for ALL young baseball fans. It is top notch sportsmanship. My daughter and I cried happy tears. I am so proud of my kids for how they handled tonight, and so proud of Tampa and its fans for standing up for my child.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pressure resulted in the man giving her the home run ball back 4-5 innings later towards the end of the game. It wasn\u2019t the same, but we appreciated him doing the right thing\u2026 I may be Ohio Grown and forever Cleveland (Jose!!!!) but I will be a Tampa fan on principle alone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The adult Cleveland Guardians fan who ripped a home run ball away from an 11-year-old girl during Monday\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2380],"tags":[5,135,51,2565,25273,538,4,185,1578,68,4299],"class_list":["post-686561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cleveland-guardians","tag-baseball","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-guardians","tag-clevelandguardians","tag-crazed-fans","tag-guardians","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-sports-fans","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-viral-videos"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116492807929974273","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}