Father says he handed son’s home run ball to loud Phillies fan to defuse confrontation
At LoanDepot Park, a dad who grabbed a home run ball for his child says he gave it up after a woman berated the family; the boy later received a signed bat and team gifts
A Philadelphia-area father who grabbed a home run ball for his young son at Friday night’s game in Miami said he handed the ball over to a woman who berated the family because he wanted to deescalate the situation.
Drew Feltwell told NBC10 Philadelphia that he was one of six fans who sprinted into the stands after Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader’s shot landed in left field at LoanDepot Park and that he was the first to reach and pick up the ball before placing it in the glove of his son, Lincoln. The ball had been intended as an early birthday gift for the boy.
Feltwell said the celebratory moment lasted only seconds before a gray-haired woman from a nearby seat approached, began yelling that the ball belonged to her and accused him of taking it from her area. "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," Feltwell told the station. "I pretty much just wanted her to go away."
Video taken by other fans showed the woman loudly insisting the ball landed closer to her seat and demanding it back. Feltwell said the seat she referenced had been empty when the ball landed and that he had followed the ball from the bat to the spot where it came to rest. The woman’s identity has not been released.
Confronted with a choice between escalating the dispute and keeping the ball or defusing it to protect his son’s experience, Feltwell said he chose the latter. "I had a fork in the road: either do something I was probably going to regret or be dad and show him how to deescalate the situation," he said. He handed the ball to the woman after a heated verbal exchange.
Fans in the vicinity booed as the woman and a man who had been sitting next to her left the section. A Marlins representative later approached Feltwell’s family, apologized and gave Lincoln and his sister a team gift pack that included baseballs, a video posted on X showed. Harrison Bader also invited Lincoln to meet him after the game and presented the boy with a signed bat, according to footage and team posts.
Lincoln told NBC10 he was unhappy to lose the original ball but accepted the exchanges and gifts. "I wasn’t very happy that we had to give it to her, but we can’t win," he said.
The incident highlights recurring disputes at major-league games over who is entitled to balls that land near multiple spectators. Fans and teams often disagree about whether the first person to secure a ball or the person nearest to where it landed has a stronger claim when the object comes to rest between seats. Teams sometimes intervene after incidents to appease families, replacing lost items or arranging player interactions.
LoanDepot Park security protocols call on fans to avoid confrontations and report incidents to stadium staff, though individual encounters in crowded sections can escalate quickly, stadium officials have said in similar cases. Neither the Marlins nor the Phillies immediately released a public statement about the episode. The woman who demanded the ball did not respond to requests for comment available in the public record.
Feltwell said he hopes the attention around the episode serves as a reminder to other fans to keep perspective. "That was what we were there for," he said. "I thought I had accomplished this great thing and putting [it] in his glove meant a lot and she was just so adamant and loud and yelling and persistent and I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore."