Young Phillies Fan Says He Felt 'Defeated' After Woman Demanded His Home Run Ball
Video from Miami game shows a woman confronting a father and his son after a Harrison Bader home run; the boy later received a signed bat and other gifts.
A young Philadelphia Phillies fan who was pressured into handing over a home run baseball said he felt “defeated” after a woman confronted his family during Friday’s game in Miami.
Lincoln Feltwell, who was about to turn 10, said he was left “not very happy” after the fan demanded the ball that landed near his family following a Harrison Bader homer. Video of the exchange circulated widely online.
Lincoln’s father, Drew Feltwell, said he had scrambled for the ball after it landed in an empty patch of seats and briefly handed it to his son. A gray-haired woman then approached, grabbed Drew’s shoulder and loudly insisted the ball belonged to her, the father told NBC10 Philadelphia.
"She just yelled in my ear, ‘That’s my ball!’ like super loud," Drew said. He described the moment as sudden and startling and said he decided to hand the ball to the woman to defuse the situation. "I pretty much just wanted her to go away," he said, adding that he chose to model de-escalation for his son.
Lincoln described the experience as heartbreaking. "Um, I wasn’t very happy that we had to give it to her, but we can’t win," he told NBC10 Philadelphia. "She was gonna get it anyways," the boy added.
Fans in the nearby seats booed as the woman returned to her row clutching the ball, and video shows her making an obscene gesture to the crowd as she left. The woman has not been publicly identified.
After the incident, Lincoln was given a signed bat by Bader and received several baseball-related items from the Marlins organization. Team and league representatives were not cited in the initial reports, and neither the woman nor any team issued a public statement in the immediate aftermath.
The episode unfolded during a routine moment at a professional game — a player homered, the ball landed in the stands and multiple fans converged — but the footage of an adult confronting a child and his parent touched off criticism on social media. The exchange prompted discussion about fan etiquette and behavior at stadiums, and the video was widely shared across platforms.
Drew Feltwell said he was not interested in a confrontation and wanted to teach his son how to handle a tense moment. "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 so that’s where I went," he told NBC Sports.
The incident is one of several recent episodes in which disputes over foul or home run balls have drawn attention online. Teams and stadiums generally advise fans to avoid confrontations and to prioritize safety, and some teams have used such incidents to reiterate stadium conduct policies. In this case, Lincoln left the ball behind but received other keepsakes from the teams and a personal memento from the player who hit the home run.
The woman who demanded the ball has not come forward publicly, and there were no immediate reports of further action taken by stadium security or team officials.