The Philadelphia Phillies fan who was confronted by a woman over a home run ball at Friday’s game between the Phillies and Miami Marlins has shared his side of what happened during the incident.
A video that circulated widely on social media showed a Phillies fan retrieving a Harrison Bader home run ball and giving it to his son during the top of the fourth inning at loanDepot Park in Miami, Fla. It did not appear that the man did anything wrong, but a woman who had a chance to grab the same ball stormed over to the man and angrily confronted him.
Rather than arguing with the furious middle-aged woman, the fan took the ball out of his son’s glove handed it to the woman. You can see the video here.
Drew Feltwell, the Phillies fan who originally grabbed the home run ball, sat down with his son and daughter for an interview with NBC 10 in Philadelphia on Saturday. Feltwell said he grew up in Burlington County, N.J. and now lives with his wife and two kids in West Palm Beach, Fla. Feltwell’s son Lincoln has a 10th birthday coming up, so the family decided to go to the Phillies-Marlins game to try to “make this week about him.”
Feltwell said he “felt like super dad” for securing a home run ball for his son. Those feelings quickly faded when the woman ran over and started screaming “that’s my ball!”
“Still in disbelief that she walked down there like that,” Feltwell said. “Just trying to set an example of how to de-escalate a situation in front of my son, I guess.”
Fortunately, both the Phillies and Marlins went out of their way to make the situation right. Feltwell said his family got a chance to meet Harrison Bader after the game, and the outfielder autographed a bat for Lincoln. The Marlins also put together a bag of souvenirs and brought it to Lincoln during the game.
“I wish I had the ball for my son to put in his room next to the bat, but if I had the ball, I probably wouldn’t have gotten the bat, so it worked out fine,” Feltwell said.
Other videos that surfaced showed the fan who confronted Feltwell flipping off the crowd after she took the ball. Feltwell says the woman, whom fans have called “Phillies Karen,” was booed out of the ballpark.
