'Go Cubs go!': The Chicago Cubs give young fan autographed baseball but all is not as it seems
A Twitter video was released on Sunday night of what looked like a Chicago Cubs fan stealing a foul ball that was meant for a young boy in the stands next to him.
Social media users were infuriated at this incident but they soon realised that it was all just a simple misunderstanding.
The video was uploaded by sports outlet Cut4, and it showed a Cubs player throwing a baseball to a young boy in the stands.
The ball hits the ground and rolls behind the young fan’s seat, but it appears that it is then snatched away by an older man in the row behind him.
A @javy23baez signed ball should take care of it. #EverybodyIn pic.twitter.com/4YzUlG8qfN
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) July 22, 2018
No wonder there was outrage!
In the footage, you can see that the man hands the ball to his wife as the little boy looks on.
Due to this seemingly incriminating evidence, everyone including the Cubs team themselves believed that the foul ball had been stolen from the young boy.
So what did the team do for the youngster?
The Cubs’ infielder Javier Baez autographed another ball for him!
I was sitting next to this guy. That ball was between my feet. The kid already had a ball the same guy helped him get. He handed it to his wife. She took a picture of it and they gave it to the kid next to them. This guy was great. This story is BAD.
— Chuck Mycoff (@cmycoff2) July 23, 2018
This meant that the ecstatic young fan was the proud owner of two game balls…yes you read that right, two game balls.
This is where Twitter stepped in to explain the previous actions of the older man who was being accused of 'stealing'' balls.
Chuck Mycoff wrote about how he was next to the man and saw the whole thing first hand.
He wrote, ''I was sitting next to this guy. That ball was between my feet. The kid already had a ball the same guy helped him get. He handed it to his wife. She took a picture of it and they gave it to the kid next to them. This guy was great. This story is BAD.''
Another man agreed with Chuck's version of events, tweeting, ''I was sitting next to the little boy and in front of the Cubs fan getting called every name in the book. Here's what they forgot to mention…1. The boy already got a ball two innings before this. 2. The guy was able to snag at least 2 other balls & gave them to other kids.''
So a after the man handed the ball to his wife in the video, she took a photo of it and then gave it to another young fan sitting on her right.
Thanks to these testimonies we now know that there was no bad guy in this scenario – just true sportsmanship all round!