Guardians fan Evelyn Moore got a pretty cool souvenir from Monday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays — a two-run home run ball hit by Cleveland second baseman Daniel Schneemann.
The 11-year-old softball player from New Philadelphia, Ohio, almost got the ball right after Schneemann hit it in the bottom of the fifth inning.
But, as seen in video footage that quickly went viral on social media, a man appeared to snatch it away as Evelyn was trying to pick it up near the rail in the left-center field stands at Progressive Field.
He eventually gave it to her, however, and now the girl’s mother wants folks on social media to leave him alone.
“This man’s life shouldn’t be ruined over this,” Nikki Moore-DeVore said. “Jokes and memes are one thing, but it’s getting excessive. It’s too much.”
Moore-DeVore said her family — which also includes her husband, Jon DeVore, and her son, Theo Moore, 9 — attend several Guardians games a year. They sit in the outfield stands, where Evelyn — an avid baseball fan and baseball card collector — likes to take her glove down to the rail and try to persuade Cleveland outfielders to toss her a ball.
Video of Schneemann’s home run shows the ball flying over the left-center field wall, where a bearded man wearing a throwback Cleveland Indians hat and T-shirt tried to catch it in the air. Instead, it bounced off his hands toward the rail to his left.
Evelyn ran down from her seat two rows up, dropped to the ground and attempted to secure the ball in front of her. The man ran over and also dropped to the ground next to her, starting a brief struggle for control of the ball.
The man eventually emerged triumphantly.
“I did not really see how the ball came over to us. I just saw it bounce in our direction and my daughter go down to get it,” Moore-DeVore said. “And I saw the scuffle kind of from behind, but I couldn’t see much of the hands or anything like that. I just saw the shoulders shifting around.
“And then she got up empty-handed, and people started booing. The guys sitting in front of me were like, ‘That was her ball!’ My husband was booing. He was not happy, but we didn’t want to ruin the game.”
Evelyn also was upset by the turn of events, her mother said, “but she didn’t cry.”
“She actually took it like a champ,” Moore-DeVore said. “Every inning, she still went up to the rail to try to get one of the players to throw a ball to her. She didn’t give up.”
Meanwhile, Theo approached the man to request he return the ball to his sister. Moore-DeVore said her son told her the man politely refused.
“I was just proud of him for going over there and taking it upon himself to try to help his sister,” Moore-DeVore said.
The Rays broadcast of the game showed the incident involving Evelyn and the man, with the announcers taking the girl’s side. On social media, fans shared the video and shamed the man for his behavior, with some looking to make his identity public.
Later in the game, Rays sideline reporter Ryan Bass visited the family at their seats and presented both kids with baseballs.
That’s when Evelyn became emotional.
“She cried happy tears,” her mother said. “I think she just felt seen. The incident made her feel small, and Ryan made her feel seen.”
Bass posted about the moment on X.
“We had to make it right,” Bass wrote, adding in a separate post: “We got the chance to make a sweet little girl’s night. There’s nothing better. Kindness is free. Always remember that.”
Before the bottom of the eighth inning, Evelyn went down to her usual post at the rail to try to persuade an outfielder to toss her a ball. She returned with the home run ball from three innings earlier.
“She came back with the biggest smile on her face: ‘Mom, he gave it back to me!’” Moore-DeVore said. “The guys in front of me were like, ‘yeah, he’s, like, getting a lot of social media flack.’ … I’m sure he realized eventually that it was probably the wrong action to take, just not good etiquette.”
In return, Moore-DeVore said, Theo offered the man — whose name has not been revealed despite the internet’s attempts — one of the balls that Bass had given him and his sister.
“He respectfully declined,” she said, “so my son gave it to another kid.”
Moore-DeVore said both of her kids are “on cloud nine” over how everything turned out — and she wants everyone else to get over it as well.
“I don’t want this one moment to ruin this guy,” she said. “And my kids, they wouldn’t want that. They’re sweet kids. I feel like, if kids their age can forgive and offer him a peace offering, grown adults and other fans can, too.”
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