Michael T. Mondak speaks about fan misbehavior

Since the pandemic, we have been seeing a disturbing pattern of fan misbehavior at sporting events.

This past week, we saw two examples of fan misbehavior that should have warranted the ejection of fans.  The first one came on Thursday at Flushing Meadows during the U.S. Open tennis tournament.  One of the participants had autographed a hat for a young fan, only to have it swiped by the CEO of a certain Fortune 500 company.  That tennis player had to step in to make things right for the young fan with a personal meeting with the fan.  And that CEO eventually apologized to the venue staff, the tennis player and the young fan, who by the way, got his hat back.

But on Friday night down in Miami, during the top of the fourth inning of a game between the host Miami Marlins and the visiting Philadelphia Phillies, Harrison Bader hit a solo home run that ricocheted off the chest of a female and landed on the ground to be retrieved by a Phillies fan who put the ball in his nine year old son’s glove as an early tenth birthday present.  The female Phillies fan was irate and demanded that the ball was hers, despite the fact that she never made a clean catch and scratched the man’s hand in an attempt to retrieve the home run ball, which should have disqualified her from being allowed to have the ball.  But she went all Karen mode and stole the ball from the young Phillies fan.  She was called out by fans in that section for her unacceptable behavior.  If that wasn’t enough, another fan who called her out was berated by that same Phillies Karen.  Fans in that section booed her out of the stadium to which she responded with a very inappropriate gesture.  The game announcers on the television coverage begged for a Miami Marlins staffer to bring the kid a ball.  This was an incident that quickly went viral all over social media.

In the 48 hours that have passed since the incident, folks on the Internet have been unsuccessful in their attempts to dox the woman labeled Phillies Karen.  They have named several potential culprits, one of whom was alleged to have been fired from her position as a school administrator in New Jersey, a position that the same school district said never employed the culprit.  One of the alleged culprits claimed she was a Red Sox fan and wished she was as thin as Phillies Karen.  But where was an umpire or a ballpark security guard when one was needed to eject Phillies Karen from the stadium?  I ain’t no Phillies fan, but this was so uncouth of her to ruin the kid’s birthday weekend.

In fact, this is not the first incident that this Phillies Karen has been involved in.  Just a few weeks earlier, a young fan in a wheelchair attending a Post Traumtik concert was given an autographed set sheet and guitar pick by one of the members of the band, only for Phillies Karen to snatch it away from him.  Another band member had to step in to make things right.  Following this incident at the baseball game, Post Traumatik took a shot at the Phillies Karen saying she was involved in an incident where after she swiped the autographed set sheet and guitar pick, destroyed a $20 merchandise table.

I said earlier that the television game announcers begged for a Marlins staffer to bring the kid a ball.  Well, during the sixth inning, a Marlins staffer approached the kid with a swag bag that contained balls for him and his sister.  The staffer said to the kid:  “What happened to you was not acceptable.  I have a swag bag for you, paid for by the Marlins organization.  I am so sorry for what happened.  Are you okay?  Happy birthday.”  He will be ten years old on September 15, just two days after my cousin Talon celebrates his ninth birthday.  After the game was over, Harrison Bader, who hit the home run that led to the incident in question, approached the young fan and his family and autographed the bat that led to the incident in the fourth inning and gave it to the young fan.  Bader also stuck around to take some photos.

The CEO of Camping World offered the kid and his family World Series tickets on his dime and also awarded his father a $50,000 recreational vehicle.

What that female staffer for the Marlins did was exactly what the team pays her to do, take care of all who attend an event at the ballpark, whether it was a Marlins game or a concert.  The question is:  Who is this female staff member for the Marlins who stepped up to the plate to boost the kid’s morale when he needed it?  The female staffer, Bader, the young kid and his family should all be on The Kelly Clarkson Show and receive some surprises from Kelly.

And as for that Phillies Karen?  Shame on her for six weeks!