Losing out on a home run ball might have turned into the best thing to ever happen to a family of Phillies fans.
The father and son who were involved in the viral incident during Friday’s game between Philadelphia and the Miami Marlins involving a female fan — who has been dubbed “Phillies Karen” — could be headed to an even bigger ball game in the near future.
The Feltwells, father Drew and son Lincoln, have been offered a trip to the World Series and a free RV.
Marcus Lemonis, the CEO of Camping World and star of The Profit, made the offer on his X account after seeing video of the incident.
“I’ll send this young man and his family to the MLB World Series on me,” he wrote. “Oh and you just won an RV as well.”
Lemonis also included a hashtag calling Drew the “dad of the year.”
The scene unfolded in the fourth inning at LoanDepot Park in Miami after Philadelphia’s Harrison Bader launched a home run to left field, where several Phillies fans were sitting.
The ball landed in a row of empty seats and Drew hustled over to collect it off the ground.
However, the woman apparently believed that the ball was hers, leading to heated confrontation with Feltwell, who already had returned to his seat and given the ball to Lincoln. He said it was an early birthday gift.
The woman appeared to berate the father as his son looked on in shock before Feltwell relented and gave the ball to her – as loud boos were heard from other fans in the area.
Feltwell told NBC10 Philadelphia in an interview on Saturday that he was shocked when the woman approached him.
“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 said.
“I jumped out of my skin and I was like, you know, like ‘Why are you here?’ you know, ‘Go away.’ And she’s like, ‘That’s my ball! You stole out of – those are from our seats.’ And I said, ‘There was nobody in that seat,’ you know.”
Feltwell added that he gave in to the woman because he “pretty much just wanted her to go away.”
A couple of innings after the incident, a member of the Marlins stadium staff delivered a bag full of gifts from the team to the boy, to great applause from fans in the area.
He also got to meet Bader after the game and was gifted an autographed bat.
As for the woman at the centre of the whole incident, she has received her own fairly lucrative offer – with a catch.
Sports card company Blowout Cards is offering the unidentified ‘Phillies Karen’ US$5,000 for the baseball, but she also must apologize and return the souvenir to Lincoln.
“We want that ball signed and inscribed by her — and only her, whoever she is — ‘I’m sorry’ so we can simply give it back to the kid,” Blowout Cards posted on its website. “Our offer is official and the offer is firm.”
‘Phillies Karen’ has yet to come forward or be properly identified despite efforts by social media sleuths.
A baseball fan wrongfully identified as the ‘Phillies Karen’ is doing her best to set the record straight – and even made a little joke about the attention she received since the viral incident.
“Ok everyone,” Cheryl Richardson-Wagner posted on Facebook. “I’m NOT the crazy Philly Mom (but I sure would love to be as thin as she is and move as fast)… and I’m a Red Sox fan!”