A home run robbery in Miami contains life lesson for us all
Harrison Bader is usually the one robbing others of home runs. This time around, a fan in the stands robbed another of a Bader home run ball.
The Phillies center fielder hit a long home run to left field in the fourth inning of Friday’s 9-3 Phillies win over the Marlins in Miami, going back-to-back with Brandon Marsh. A few fans went for the ball, which landed in an empty seat.
A gentleman, wearing a Phillies shirt, grabbed the ball off the ground and handed it to his son named Lincoln. A woman wearing a Phillies hoodie, who also went for the ball, immediately came over to the man and Lincoln. The man and woman engaged in a heated discussion, and it ended with the man taking the ball out of Lincoln’s glove and giving it to the woman.
There’s a lot going on here. Watching the replay, the ball is fair game. If you’ve been to enough baseball games, there’s a good chance that you ran down a row of seats for a baseball only for someone else to get there first. It happens. That doesn’t mean you’re entitled to the baseball.
It’s totally fine to be a little frustrated when you don’t get your hands on the ball. To have a total meltdown over it is a bad look, and as a result, the woman became the main character of the night. Kids these days call it a “crash out.” It all could have been resolved with an apology.
Some will argue that the man should have pushed back on the aggressor, but I applaud him for remaining calm. He realized how silly this all was and just gave her the baseball for the sake of ending the argument.
But there’s a happy ending here. In the sixth inning, a Marlins employee gifted Lincoln a gift bag with a baseball and a bobblehead.
After the game, the Phillies invited Lincoln, his family and the Phillies fans around him down to the concourse to meet Bader outside of the Phillies clubhouse after the game. Bader gifted Lincoln with a signed bat and took photos with everyone.
The original confrontation will be a topic in Philadelphia and around baseball over the next couple of days. Most baseball fans would agree that there is a certain etiquette that all must follow when trying to catch a baseball. Unless someone rips the ball out of your hand when you clearly have it secured, it’s not your ball. Adults can keep baseballs, but it’s a nice gesture to hand it to a kid.
For the woman’s sake, I hope she lays low for some time. I’m part of the problem because I shared the video, but it must suck to have your lowest moment go viral. That’s the reality of the world we live in. By entering a major league stadium, you’re consenting to being on camera. Anyone can become the enemy of the internet on a given day. The piling on becomes excessive at a certain point. Think of a really embarrassing moment in your life when you acted out of character that you would like to have back. It would stink if it was all over the internet and people like me were judging you.
The good thing is that cell phones and social media have ruined our attention spans. We tend to quickly move on to something or someone else to complain about. Those attempting to dox the woman in the video are taking it way too far. It’s easy to forget that this is just a game. No crime was committed.
Maybe this is a lesson for us all to calm down and take a deep breath before saying or doing something you’ll regret later down the road. And to be a little kinder to everyone, even to those who aren’t kind to you.