There’s nothing like Major League Baseball. The cracking of the bat. The roar of the crowd. And grown men stealing baseballs from children.
Exhibit A for this season (watch it below) shows a fan dropping a home run to Daniel Schneemann of the Cleveland Guardians on Monday. The fan then appeared to take the ball away from a little girl who had retrieved it.
The spectacle did not go unnoticed by the visiting Tampa Bay Rays broadcast team.
“No, he’s not going to steal that? And then he was proud of it… Give that ball back. Come on,” the announcers said.
The ball bandit advertised on his now-deleted social media that he did return the ball many innings later. This was confirmed by the girl’s mother – but he had already become a pariah on social media.
In the meantime, the Rays were a hit because their sideline reporter, Ryan Bass, balls delivered to the girl and her brother. That won the heart of their mother, Nikki DeVore.
“Cleveland mom here,” DeVore wrote on the Tampa Bay Rays Fan Club Facebook page. “You all saw the man steal the ball from my daughter. You know, my son went and asked him for the ball, which was so brave. I just have to thank Tampa for airing it when the Cleveland broadcast switched to puppies instead of showing the man stealing the ball from a kid.”
I can’t thank Ryan and Tampa enough for making things right. Thank you all for looking out for ALL the young baseball fans. It’s top sport. My daughter and I cried tears of joy. I’m so proud of my kids for how they handled tonight, and so proud of Tampa and its fans for standing up for my child.
Devore added, “The pressure resulted in the guy giving her the home run ball back 4-5 innings later near the end of the game. It wasn’t the same, but we appreciated him doing the right thing…I may be Ohio Grown and forever Cleveland (Jose!!!!), but I’ll be a Tampa fan just on principle.”
