A father who handed over his son's home run baseball to an angry Phillies fan has explained his decision, saying he wanted the woman to go away after she harassed him loudly and persistently. Drew Feltwell caught the ball hit by Phillies' Harrison Bader during Friday night's game against the Marlins in Miami, hoping to give it to his son Lincoln as an early 10th birthday gift.
Feltwell described feeling like 'super dad' when he placed the ball in his son's glove, but moments later, an unknown woman approached and began shouting, 'That's my ball!' Feltwell said she was 'so adamant and loud' that he decided to give up the ball to de-escalate the situation, telling her to go away. His son Lincoln noted that the woman seemed unwilling to back down.
Footage of the incident shows the woman demanding the ball, claiming entitlement because it was near her seat, though she never appeared to possess it. After the confrontation, fans booed the woman out of the arena. A Marlins staff member later gifted Lincoln a prize pack including a signed bat from Bader, who met the boy after the game.
Feltwell said the family ended up having a good night thanks to the kindness of others. Meanwhile, online speculation that the woman was fired from her job at a New Jersey school district was refuted by the Hammonton School District, which joked that any employee would have caught the ball bare-handed.
