(NEXSTAR) — A father and son at the center of a now-viral dispute over a home run ball are saying that despite how the confrontation unfolded, it’s “all good.”
Videos of the interaction have been circulating since Friday, when two people at loanDepot Park in Miami had an apparent altercation over a home run ball hit by Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader.
Bader hit the solo home run into left field. As is typical at MLB games, several fans scrambled for the ball. A man in Phillies gear, since identified as Drew Feltwell, ultimately came up with the ball.
“[It] hit a chair and bobbled between the arm rests,” Feltwell explained in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I picked it up, turned around, and felt like super dad and walked back to Lincoln, put it in his glove, and gave him a hug.”
Video from the broadcast captured that moment, showing Feltwell embracing his son, Lincoln, who was celebrating his birthday at the Miami Marlins game. Then a woman, also wearing Phillies gear, rushed after Feltwell and grabbed his arm.
The woman yells at Feltwell, who appeared visibly shocked at the immediate confrontation. Feltwell and the woman have a conversation, pointing back toward where the ball had landed.
In a video from another angle, the woman can be heard telling Feltwell, “No, you took it from me.”
It wasn’t immediately clear from the broadcast who initially secured the ball where it landed.
“When she screamed in my ear, that’s when I, you know, everybody saw how shocked I was,” Feltwell said. “You know, when I turned and leaned back, because she was really close, she had many, many inappropriate words to say around my kids, and all I could think was, make her go away.”
Feltwell ultimately took the ball out of Lincoln’s glove and gave it to the woman, who then walked off. He told another outlet that he was trying to “set an example of how to de-escalate a situation” for his son.
Lincoln didn’t leave empty-handed, however. A member of the Marlins staff was seen giving Lincoln a bag of merchandise. After the game, the boy was able to meet Bader, who gifted him a signed bat.
“I would have still liked that home run ball to put in my room,” Lincoln said, adding that it’s “all just as good in the end.”
Just days earlier, a similar sntaching moment went viral when a man took a hat apparently meant for a young fan from tennis player Kamil Majchrzak at the U.S. Open. Majchrzak was signing autographs on the side of the court when he held up his hat to a young boy in the stands, only for a man, since identified as Piotr Szczerek, to grab it and stuff it inside a woman’s bag beside him.
Szczerek apologized for the incident last week, saying that he believed he was meant to receive Majchrzak’s hat.
“It was never my intent to steal away a prized memento from the young fan,” Szczerek wrote in a Facebook post. “I became caught up in the heat of the moment and the joy of the victory, and I believed Majchrzak was handing a hat to me to give to my sons, who had previously asked for autographs.”
Szczerek said he sent the hat to the boy, who was also able to meet Majchrzak. The tennis player personally gifted the boy, identified as Brock, another hat and took photos with him.
The Associated Press and Nexstar’s Michael Bartiromo contributed to this report.