Father who was screamed at by woman who 'stole' MLB ball explains what she said during altercation
The dad who was screamed at during the Philadelphia Phillies home run ball incident has revealed exactly what the unnamed woman said to him.
It all kicked off when Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader sent a home run into the crowd at LoanDepot Park on Friday (September 5) in Miami.
As is tradition in baseball, if a member of the audience catches a ball hit into the stands, then they get to keep it. At the moment, viral footage showed a handful of fans rushing to an empty row to try to grab the ball.
One dad picked it up and proceeded to walk back to where he was sitting around five seats away, before handing it to his son, who was ecstatic that his dad had retrieved the ball.
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However, moments later, another fan, who had been sitting in the row behind where the ball landed, marched over and seemingly demanded he hand the ball over.
Now, Drew Feltwell has spoken about what happened and what she said to him.
He told Fox Sports: "I can’t even repeat that on air. She was very vulgar. Screaming right in my ear that, you know, lotta bad words and, ‘That’s my ball.’
"That was her section, and trying to tell me she had the right to that ball. The screaming and yelling kinda got to us, and I just wanted her to go away. So, that’s how she got the ball."
Meanwhile, during an interview with NBC10, he added: "I didn’t even see her walk up, and as she reached for my arm, she just yelled in my ear, ‘That’s my ball!’ like, super loud.
"I jumped out of my skin, and I was like, you know, like ‘Why are you here?’ you know, ‘Go away.’ And she’s like, ‘That’s my ball! You stole out of – those are from our seats.’
"And I said, ‘There was nobody in that seat,’ you know. She said, ‘That’s from where we were sitting,’ and she just went on and on.
"... I’m literally leaning back as she’s in my face yelling and yelling, and I pretty much just wanted her to go away because I had a fork in the road: either do something I was probably going to regret or be dad and show him how to de-escalate the situation, so that’s where I went."
After Drew handed the ball over, fans were gutted for his son, Lincoln, especially after learning it was his 10th birthday that day.
After witnessing the controversial incident unfold, the Marlins took it upon themselves to make things right.
Footage shows a Marlins representative giving the birthday boy a prize pack containing an assortment of gifts and goodies, including baseballs for him and his sister, who was sitting next to him.
A video posted on social media shows the rep saying: “We brought you a cool little goodie bag."
And while Lincoln may not have got the ball that Bader hit, the Phillies did him one better after the game when Bader himself came to meet him and gift him a signed bat.
A post to the Phillies' Twitter account shows two pictures of Lincoln meeting Bader after the match as the player gifts him the signed bat.
"Going home with a signed bat from Bader," the post read.
Lucy Devine