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Marlins Staff Celebrated for Classy Move Towards Phillies Fan After Awkward HR Fracas

After two Phillies fans disagreed on who had the right to a home run ball, the Marlins stepped in to make sure everyone went home happy.

Tyler Lauletta

It’s been a pretty brutal few days for fans acting normally when gifted something by athletes on the field.
It’s been a pretty brutal few days for fans acting normally when gifted something by athletes on the field. / @destiny_lugardo / X
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It has been a rough few days when it comes to sports fans acting normally when gifted a souvenir from an athlete.

At the U.S. Open, a man was spotted snatching the hat of Kamil Majchrzak out of the hands of a child. While Majchrzak made things right the next day, it was still an odd moment to behold.

On Friday night at LoanDepot Park, that awkward moment got its sequel. After Phillies centerfielder Harrison Bader hit a solo shot to put his team up 5–1 over the Marlins, a mini fracas broke out in the stands.

One Phillies fan hustled to retrieve the ball, nabbed it after a brief moment on the ground, and went back to his seat to give the ball to the young fan he was sitting with, presumably his son. But another fan, whose seat was closer to the initial landing spot of the ball, took issue with the move, and went over to give the fan that got the ball the business. Eventually, the fan who got the ball appeared to say, “fine, okay, whatever sheesh” and gave the ball back.

You can watch the scene unfold below.

On the one hand, we cannot see the moment that the ball was initially possessed, so it is possible that there were some dastardly moves done behind the seats that would offer more clarity to the scene. On the other hand, once a kid has the home run ball, it’s usually best policy to let the kid keep the home run ball.

Thankfully, the Marlins’ stadium staff went out of their way to make things right, hooking up the fan who was briefly without the home run ball with a new ball and a prize pack.

After the game, the Phillies made sure to give the fan an unforgettable moment as well, with Bader coming out to meet the family and offer up a signed bat.

A great gesture by the Phillies, but really a huge shoutout to the Marlins staff for acting in the moment to make sure everyone left the stadium with a happy memory instead of an awkward one. Seeing one team make such a gesture for opposing fans is just a nice reminder that a love of baseball can transcend a particular fandom or rooting interest.

All of that said, please, if you or a loved one happens to be in the stands when a home run ball is hit, or a player offers a fan their hat, or anything of the sort occurs and puts you in a position to possibly nab a souvenir, please just be normal about it.

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Tyler Lauletta
TYLER LAULETTA

Tyler Lauletta is a staff writer for the Breaking and Trending News Team/team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI, he covered sports for nearly a decade at Business Insider, and helped design and launch the OffBall newsletter. He is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia, and remains an Eagles and Phillies sicko. When not watching or blogging about sports, Tyler can be found scratching his dog behind the ears.

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