Boy whose ball was 'stolen' by woman receives heartwarming gift from Phillies baseball player

A Phillies fan whose home run ball was infamously 'stolen' by another spectator has received a sweet gift from the baseball player himself.

If you somehow missed the viral moment, it occurred on Saturday night (6 September) at LoanDepot Park in Miami during the Philadelphia Phillies' game against the Miami Marlins.

Unbelievable footage of the stands saw Phillies supporter Drew Feltwell manage to snag a home run ball hit by Harrison Bader, as it flew into the crowd.

He ran over to where the ball landed in an empty row and grabbed it, before running back to his seat to proudly hand it over to his son.

A long-standing baseball tradition rules that, whoever catches the ball in the crowd has the right to keep it, so the father-son duo looked absolutely delighted with this win.

However, their happiness was short-lived as they were interrupted by a woman who had been sitting in the row behind the empty ones and seemingly believed the ball was heading in her direction.

The now-viral moment saw the woman 'steal' the child's ball (ESPN)

The clip showed the female fan angrily march over to demand Feltwell and his son hand the ball back over to her.

And in another video shared by a different fan, the woman could be heard shouting: "You took it from me. It was in my hand," while the little boy was stood next to them watching the confrontation.

Not wanting to continue the altercation, the father looked disappointed as he handed her the ball, before she accepted it and marched back to her seat.

The video has since made its way across social media around the world for, as you can imagine, all of the wrong reasons.

To make matters worse, according to MailOnline, the game took place just ahead of Feltwell's son's 10th birthday.

The dad has since addressed the viral incident, in an interview with NBC10 Philadelphia on Saturday.

He explained: "I pretty much just wanted her to go away. She was in the seat behind. I don’t know if she was standing up. Maybe?

"But I was watching the ball from almost the bat to where it went into that seat and kind of jumbled around and I was already going in and coincidentally, as soon as I was going in, it stopped in one spot and I just picked it up."

In the end, the little boy ended up with something way better than a home ball run (Philadelphia Phillies/X)

He recalled: "I didn’t even see her walk up and as she reached for my arm. "She just yelled in my ear, 'That’s my ball!', like super loud.

"I jumped out of my skin and I was like, you know, like 'Why are you here?' you know, 'Go away.'

"And she’s like, 'That’s my ball! You stole out of – those are from our seats.' And I said, 'There was nobody in that seat', you know."

The dad added: "She said, 'That’s from where we were sitting,' and she just went on and on."

The woman was booed out of the stands at the time and has since been slammed on social media.

However, it hasn't been all negative for Feltwell and his son, as they managed to bag some free Phillies goodies after the video went viral.

According to MLB and NPR, the youngster was later approached by a Marlins staffer who gave the boy a bag of goodies and apologised to him, saying: "I'm so sorry. [Are] you OK?"

Then, after the game, things got even better as Bader personally gave the boy an autographed bat outside the Phillies' clubhouse and spent time chatting with him.

The Phillies official Twitter account shared a picture of the heartwarming moment, alongside the caption: "Going home with a signed bat from Bader."