A Cubs fan at Wrigley Field took a baseball intended for a child, and gave it to the woman seated next to him. First base coach Will Venable approached the stands with the ball and tossed it to a child in the front row. However, the kid did not catch the ball, and it rolled under his seat to the row behind him. A fan in the second row then picked the ball up and handed it to the woman seated next to him. When going to a baseball game, DON'T be this guy. pic.twitter.com/pAeiRN6Q2X — Cut4 (@Cut4) July 22, 2018 The incident did not go unnoticed by the Cubs, who then made sure to make amends by giving the young fan a ball signed by second baseman Javier Baez. So, in the end, a Cubs fan got a great memory and the Cubs got a great win over an arch rival, defeating the Cardinals 7-2. UPDATE: David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 in Chicago is reporting that the fan who took the ball away from the child, had actually helped give the child a ball earlier in the game. I spoke with people from the Cubs. The man who grabbed the ball on the widely seen video had actually already helped the little boy get a ball earlier. The young man has a game used ball and a Javy Baez ball. All is well. Guy is A-OK so let it go people. — David Kaplan (@thekapman) July 23, 2018 While this new info certainly puts the adult Cubs fan in a better light, he still took a ball that was intended for a child and gave it away. Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn<doc-sep>Here’s a scenario from this weekend: Cubs first base coach Will Venable tried to give a ball to a child sitting along the first-base line and, when the ball got away from the kid, a middle-aged man in the second row happily grabbed it. Instead of handing it back to the kid, the man gave it to the woman next to him. The twist: It turns out this person is not terrible. After the seemingly damning video went viral, with many vilifying this alleged ball thief, witnesses have come forward defending his honor. According to users on Twitter, along with local radio host David Kaplan, the same man helped the kid get a ball a few innings earlier. And after the man gave the ball to his wife, she took a picture of it before giving it to another child, per a Twitter user who said he sat next to him. “He had already helped that kid get a ball,” reported one fan in attendance. “He gave two more away to kids also. He was a great guy. TV got this all wrong.” The Cubs got involved after the video went out. The kid got another baseball — signed by Javier Baez to boot.<doc-sep>NBC Sports Chicago's David Kaplan reported that the man vilified for appearing to take a foul ball from a young child had already given the child a ball Cubs Fans Outraged After Man Appears to Take Game Ball from Child — But There's More to the Story One Chicago Cubs fan utterly struck out when a viral video reportedly unfairly painted him as a villain. In a video shared to Twitter over the weekend from Sunday’s Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals match-up, an adult male fan appeared to snatch away a game ball tossed to a little boy seated in the row in front of him. Get push notifications with news, features and more. Many were quick to vilify the man for his actions, prompting the Cubs to step up to help out. The team made sure that the child went home with a baseball with Javier Báez’s signature. Posting photos of the boy on Twitter, the Cubs official account wrote that the “signed ball should take care of it.” In the photos, the young fan proudly held both the signed ball — and another ball. In fact, according to NBC Sports Chicago’s David Kaplan, the adult attendee whose actions were in question had apparently already gifted a foul ball to the little boy. cubs Credit: Chicago Cubs/Twitter Kaplan wrote on Twitter, “I spoke with people from the Cubs. The man who grabbed the ball on the widely seen video had actually already helped the little boy get a ball earlier. The young man has a game used ball and a Javy Baez ball. All is well. Guy is A-OK so let it go people.” Jeff Rose, who said he was sitting nearby, also tweeted, “I was sitting the next to the boy and the same fan helped him snag a ball a few innings before this.” In fact, the man reportedly gave baseballs to multiple children at the game — including the one in question, who a fellow game attendee said the fan gifted to a different child in his row. Yet another attendee told Kaplan, “That guy did nothing wrong. He gave three balls out to people around him including the little boy in question. He was great.”<doc-sep>
CHICAGO (CBS) — One of the biggest thrills of going to a baseball game is getting a foul ball, but one fan is getting raked over the coals on social media for appearing to take a ball meant for a child, but it turns out he didn’t deserve all that grief. Cubs first base coach Will Venable tossed the foul ball to a boy in the first row, but it rolled under the seat, and the man sitting behind the boy grabbed it. Instead of giving it to the boy, he gave it to the woman next to him. The Cubs quickly jumped in, and gave the boy a baseball signed by second baseman Javy Baez. When going to a baseball game, DON'T be this guy. pic.twitter.com/pAeiRN6Q2X — Cut4 (@Cut4) July 22, 2018 It turns out, what TV cameras didn’t show was the same man had given that boy a foul ball earlier in the game, and had given a couple more away to other kids. Photos attached to the Cubs’ tweet show the boy holding two balls – the ball signed by Baez, and a foul ball from earlier in the game. Other fans sitting nearby tweeted the guy got a ball for the kid before the televised incident, and also gave two more foul balls away to kids sitting next to his wife. He had already helped that kid get a ball. He gave two more away to kids also. He was a great guy. TV got this all wrong. — Chuck Mycoff (@cmycoff2) July 22, 2018 I was sitting the next to the boy and the same fan helped him snag a ball a few innings before this. — Jeff Rose, CFP® (@jjeffrose) July 23, 2018 After the game, NBC Sports Chicago host David Kaplan confirmed the man had already helped the boy get a different foul ball earlier in the game.