A young fan was ejected from Friday night’s Cincinnati Reds-Arizona Diamondbacks game after interfering with a potential home run ball from Tommy Pham.
Pham was batting with runners on the corners, two outs and his team up 8-4 on the Reds in the bottom of the seventh. He launched a ball deep to left field that looked like a potential 3-run home run.
Reds outfielder Spencer Steer sized things up and with his back to the wall, leaped and appeared to snatch the ball out of the air. He had seemingly prevented the game from getting more out of hand, potentially providing an opportunity for his teammates to rally late.
Pham stopped on the bases, thinking he was out and the game would move into the top-half of the eighth inning. But then the umpires signaled a home run.
The confusion escalated as the umpires convened and reviewed the call. And as it turned out, a young fan had robbed Steer of robbing Pham. The call was overturned and Steer was credited with the out.
A young fan robbed Spencer Steer of robbing a Tommy Pham home run but the call was overturned and Pham was called out pic.twitter.com/G6MptDkr1N
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) August 26, 2023
The young fan had reached out in front of Steer’s glove to make the catch. Because he reached into the field of play, the boy and his family were removed from their seats by security.
“Once I saw what happened, I had the same reaction every fan had in the stadium — that it was a pretty remarkable play by the kid,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, via ESPN. “It looked like the ball was in Steer’s glove and the kid stole it. I don’t know how he did it.”
Before being removed, the young fan was showered with a chorus of “MVP! MVP!” chants by the Chase Field faithful.
Pham, meanwhile, lamented the fact that the boy and his family were ejected.
“I was in the dugout like, ‘Out, it’s clear interference,'” Pham said. “I just feel bad for him because kids really don’t know that interference rules, so sucks that you got to get kicked out for that.”
Major League Baseball has been desperate to avoid another Jeffrey Maier situation and have tightened their interference rules since the 1996 incident. On Friday night, it unfortunately cost that young fan and his family, who clearly didn’t intend to interfere with the game.
