Braves give young fan autographed ball after security awkwardly takes it from him
Wednesday was a strange night for the Braves and two of their fans.
During Atlanta’s game against the Pirates, Rio Ruiz hit a fair ball to right field. Normally, because it’s a fair ball, you would not chase after it like it was a foul ball. But one fan did (perhaps he mistook the ball’s landing as a foul ball), and he immediately handed the ball to a young kid as a gift. Rules are rules, though — this was ultimately fan interference, and it resulted in the fan getting ejected from the stadium by a security guard.
The same security guard who was escorting the fan also made the awkward decision to take the fair ball back from the kid. On the one hand, he was just doing his job, and if he didn’t rush over to the fan, he would’ve likely gotten fired. On the other hand, taking the ball from the kid was a bit rash; he could’ve let the kid keep the ball, and the stadium could’ve handed the teams a new batch of baseballs to use.
It was a weird situation all around, and no one (except the kid) came out of it looking good.
However, the Braves made things right with both the ejected fan and the young kid. According to ESPN, after the incident, the Braves let the fan back in to watch the rest of the game, and they gave the young kid a baseball autographed by Freddie Freeman, plus an invitation to a June game so he could celebrate his birthday.
