The father of a young baseball fan who was at the epicenter of a social media firestorm after a heated dispute at a Philadelphia Phillies game last week is sharing his take on the now-viral incident.
Drew Feltwell of West Palm Beach, Florida, was celebrating his son Lincoln’s 10th birthday at the Sept. 5 game between the Phillies and the Miami Marlins, where he managed to secure a fly ball hit into the stands by Phillies center fielder Harrison Bader, who scored a home run.
Widely circulated footage of the moment, however, shows the father and son being berated by a female attendee who insisted the ball was hers.
Feltwell, a New Jersey native, reluctantly gave the ball to the woman in the end.
Speaking to NBC 10 Philadelphia over the weekend, he acknowledged being one of several people who had attempted to retrieve the ball, but was nonetheless “still in disbelief” over how the incident unfolded.
“It was, like, 10 seconds or 15 seconds later. She was quick,” he explained. “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 almost jumped out of my skin.”
As for his decision to hand the ball over to the woman, he added, “I had a fork in the road to either, you know, do something I was probably going to regret or be dad and show him how to de-escalate a situation, so that’s where I went.”
Much of the criticism has been directed at the woman, widely dubbed “Phillies Karen” but not yet publicly identified. Still, some have defended her actions. “Well the ball did land near her and he ran over to grab it. I kinda see her point but it’s the way you ask,” one person wrote on Instagram.
According to reports, she was heckled by other fans who witnessed the exchange, and eventually stormed off.
On Saturday, New Jersey’s Hammonton School District released a statement on its social media platforms rebuking an online rumor that “Phillies Karen” was one of its employees.
“Anyone who works for our school district, attended as a student or lives in our community would obviously have caught the ball bare-handed in the first place, avoiding this entire situation,” the statement read.
Fortunately, Lincoln’s birthday celebration ended on an upbeat note when the boy got to meet Bader after the game and went home with a signed bat and a prize pack.
“We ended up having a good night because of good people,” Feltwell said, before noting he and his family would still accept an apology from the woman if she came forward.
Watch a KTLA 5 news report on the incident below.
