The internet was buzzing this week following a bizarre standoff at LoanDepot Park. During the Phillies’ MLB NL-East matchup against the Miami Marlins on September 5, a home run from Philadelphia outfielder Harrison Bader turned into a social media storm when a woman, now dubbed “Phillies Karen,” confronted a man who retrieved the ball and handed it to his young son.
Advertisement
The video shows the man picking the ball off the ground before celebrating with the boy. Moments later, the woman stormed over, insisting it was hers, even claiming he had snatched it away.
The heated exchange ended with the man reluctantly handing the ball over. But by then, the internet had already anointed her as the latest viral villain. Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson weighed in on this moment on Nightcap, and the Hall of Fame TE was not amused by the women’s act.
“The ball is on the ground… He picks the ball up… She said he took it out of her hand. She didn’t have the ball,” Sharpe ranted. To him, the outrage made no sense since she never had possession of the ball to begin with.
Sharpe then emphasized his point by imagining the circumstances would have changed the conversation in favor of the woman. “I can see if he took it out of her hands. I can see if he took it out of a kid’s hand. But the ball was on the floor,” he said, stressing that the man did nothing wrong.
The Broncos legend praised the fan’s generosity since he gave the ball to a child instead of keeping it for himself. Sharpe was critical of the woman’s sense of entitlement. “Just because that’s not his section, that doesn’t mean he can’t go get the retrieval ball. She felt like she was entitled to it because it was in her section,” he argued.
Johnson quickly jumped in to back Sharpe’s view, talking about the basic rule every fan knows: “You snooze, you lose. When a home run is hit, it’s the first person that gets to that. That’s always been the rule.”
Ocho even pointed to San Francisco’s McCovey Cove, where fans dive off kayaks to try and get their hands on the balls hit into the water.
Sharpe laughed and agreed. “Don’t be talking about this ain’t your section. I don’t care whose section it is. I dive in that water and I get the ball,” he added.
While the online debate raged on, the Phillies and Marlins made sure that the young boy didn’t leave disappointed. Stadium staff gave him a gift bag full of team merchandise, and Harrison Bader later even signed a bat for him.
So even though “Phillies Karen” became the butt of jokes online, Sharpe and Johnson’s breakdown reminded fans of baseball’s oldest, yet vital unwritten rule: The ball belongs to whoever gets it first, no matter the section.
