Nick Castellanos is surprisingly doing some villain-sympathizing this week.
The Philadelphia Phillies veteran outfielder Castellanos appeared on the latest episode of the podcast “On Base With Mookie Betts.” During the episode, the topic of the notorious “Phillies Karen” incident from earlier this month came up.
Castellanos was actually very sympathetic to the woman involved in the incident and indicated that he was trying to view things from her perspective.
“I don’t just see a ball,” said Castellanos. “I see a very frustrated lady for years that felt like she’s probably been getting the s–t end of the stick. And now this thing happened. And she’s like, ‘I’m not finishing second here. I need this for me.’
“The Internet has let her have it,” added Castellanos.
"I see a very frustrated lady… that felt like she's been getting the s–t end of the stick"
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 18, 2025
Nick Castellanos reacts to viral Phillies fan confrontation pic.twitter.com/d8zWQFNcxa
It is a little tough to agree with Castellanos here, especially since he was making a lot of assumptions about the woman and her motivations. What we do know for sure is that “Phillies Karen” inserted herself into a wholesome father-and-son moment by demanding that they “return” to her a home run ball that she never even secured in the first place (see the original video here). After successfully strong-arming them into giving her the ball, the woman then proceeded to flip off the crowd and wave the ball around in faux triumph.
Castellanos might be right that the online hatred for the woman has gone a bit too far (as even the father involved in the incident has called for the outrage to cool). But you really can’t feel too bad for “Phillies Karen” at this point, especially since she has even received some lucrative offers in the wake of the spectacle.
