‘I Wasn’t Very Happy’: Boy Who Had Ball Yanked by ‘Phillies Karen’ Speaks Out
Lincoln Feltwell, the young boy who had to give up his home run ball to the instantly-viral “Phillies Karen,” admitted he “wasn’t very happy” his dad was compelled to hand the souvenir over to the belligerent woman.
NBC 10 Philadelphia scored the first interview with Feltwell, who is approaching his 10th birthday, as well as his sister and his dad, Drew, on Saturday night. Reporter Kelsey Kushner asked Lincoln how he felt about giving the ball up, just seconds after his dad placed it in his glove; the youngster said he was bummed about it.
“Um, I wasn’t very happy that we had to give it to her, but we can’t win,” Lincoln said. “She was gonna get it anyways.”
Drew Feltwell, a moment earlier, said he “jumped out of my skin” when the woman got in his face and demanded he fork over the Harrison Bader home run ball.
“I’m literally leaning back as she’s in my face, yelling and yelling and yelling, and I pretty much just wanted her to go away,” Drew Feltwell said. “I had a fork-in-the-road, either, you know, do something I was probably going to regret, or, be dad and show him how to de-escalate the situation. So that’s where I went.”
Later, Kushner asked Drew if he regretted giving away the ball. He did not say whether he did or did not regret it in his response:
“That was what we were there for. We were there to get a home run ball. So I thought I had accomplished this great thing, and putting in his glove meant a lot. And she was just so adamant and loud and yelling and persistent, and I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore, you know. There was hundreds of people, you know, just staring. And like I said, she was very, very, very close. And I’m, you know, I’m dad of the family, so I didn’t want to do something I regret. And that was the choice I made is to just hand the ball back and tell her go away.”
Lincoln may have lost out on the ball, but he did get the last laugh — as Bader presented him with a signed bat after the game, and the Marlins hooked him up with a huge gift bag.
Phillies Karen, meanwhile, ended up getting in the face of another fan before flipping the middle finger to her section of the stadium, where several fans were showering her with loud “boos” and giving her the thumbs down sign.
You can watch NBC 10’s full interview with the Feltwells via the video above.
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