Entitled

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Stop the madness.

It is bad enough baseball is going crazy on the field with the way the game is being played, taught and not taught in 2025 – but the home run ball shenanigans at loanDepot park on Friday night is the latest example of strange and entitled behavior.

All is fair in love and war and in foul balls and home run balls hit into the stands, everyone knows that. Well, almost everyone.

If someone beats you to the baseball, it is their ball, plain and simple. Such was the case when the Phillies’ Harrison Bader unloaded a home run to deep left field in the fourth inning in Miami.

Listen, I’ve caught my fair share of foul balls and also was nearly blasted in the head by a foul ball in the press box in Milwaukee at American Family Field, a rocket off the bat of Ryan Braun and even have the picture to prove it.

I’m not going to go on a deep dive on the woman who went after the father who retrieved Harrison Bader’s home run ball – after all this was Phillies fan on Phillies fan crime – demanding he take the baseball from his son and give it to her, I will let the internet handle her and her actions.

I must say this though. I have a friend named Karen and she is a wonderful woman, who just happens to have the name Karen. I think it is time we stop calling these entitled, annoying people Karens. It’s simply not fair to real Karens out there.

There is a better word for that type of behavior … and it rhymes with pitch.

Whenever I see a kid with a glove at a game, it always brings a smile to my face and when a family comes to the game with gloves, that is even better.

In 2025 you can’t hide from the internet and a lot is coming out here, I am not going to play that game, I will leave that to others, but my initial reaction was that I felt bad for that father because not only was it his son’s birthday – and good for that family going to a ballgame on your kid’s birthday, that is the way it should be – but I also felt bad because he retrieved the baseball, proudly showed it off to the crowd and then even more proudly gave it to his son and then gave him a big hug, a most special birthday present – and the youngster was thrilled.

This dad was living the baseball dream.

Not only did he take his kid and his family to see his first-place Phillies in Miami on his son’s birthday, but the Phillies were winning the game, they went onto a 9-3 victory, and a home run was blasted into their area, far from home plate. His children came equipped to with baseball gloves, that is always something I like to see after going to thousands of games through the years.

Whenever I see a kid with a glove at a game, it always brings a smile to my face and when a family comes to the game with gloves, that is even better. I at once think to myself, those are true baseball fans, good for them.

And as I said, I have gotten a number of baseballs, foul balls, because my seat is always in the press box behind home plate. I did manage to run down a home run at a minor league game once and gave it to my son Corey, who was with me.

While at work, though, whenever I managed to catch a foul ball or pick one up after hitting off my hand, I always would look for a young fan in the stands and would flip the baseball to them. That always got a nice little cheer from the crowd, and it is a good thing that people in press boxes do regularly.

And don’t think the players are not watching.

Especially the ones who always pay attention like Hall of Famer Derek Jeter.

I had a good relationship with Jeter. He appreciated my baseball knowledge. In the clubhouse, Jeter was a get it done guy. In other words, he had a system, he was in the clubhouse quickly and dressed quickly and out onto the field; after the game it was the same routine. He was not a clubhouse lingerer like so many players. Derek Jeter had things to do.

Before a game if I needed to talk to Jeter, I would station myself by the basket that was placed near the middle of the room. The basket was filled with sanitary socks. Jeter would appear in the clubhouse and always head directly to that basket to pick up the white sanitary socks he would be wearing that game.

Like clockwork.

So, I would station myself near the basket, initiate a conversation with him, follow him back to his cubicle, he would sit down and begin to change into his uniform. The key was I did not waste his time. I directly asked the questions I had that day and moved on and he appreciated that. If the conversation had to be longer, we made it longer, like the time he detailed to me the style and size of bat he used. Someday I will write all about that here at The Story and how that led me to a most fascinating history of this particular bat model.

But most days, if there was a conversation, it was quick and to the point.

The same after games when he would handle questions from the media.

Remember how I said he pays attention. This was early in the Yankee season, and the Yankees were not off to a great defensive start and even Jeter might have made some errors. The refrain from the team was this: “Hey, it’s early. We will get it right.’’

And they did.

One day game at Yankee Stadium, I was sitting in my usual front row seat in the press box, not directly behind the batter, a little to the left of home plate. It was around the fourth inning when a screaming line drive came my way. I played a lot of first base, so I got a good read on the ball. I stood up, reached out with my left hand, my glove hand, without a glove. I thought I was going to make an impressive barehand catch. The ball hit my hand, but I dropped it, picked the ball up on one bounce and sat back down.

After the game, a Yankees win, I had to ask Jeter a question, but first the shortstop had a question for me.

Jeter asked: “In the fourth inning, what happened to you on that foul ball?’’

Derek Jeter saw the whole thing from shortstop, took it in, and now had some postgame ammunition to fire at me. Credit Derek Jeter.

Now to my credit, I did not not hem and haw at the question.

“It’s early in the season,’’ I responded. “Later in the year I’ll make that play.’’

Jeter gave me a knowing sly smile.

That’s when I fully realized something I always suspected. Derek Jeter is aware of every movement on the ballfield at all times. He doesn’t miss a thing.

I did not catch the foul ball cleanly, but I learned nothing really gets by Derek Jeter.

Yes, like everything else in baseball foul balls in the stands can tell a story too and so do home runs.

Friday night this particular home run told us a lot. First of all, a lot of opposing team fans go to Marlins games, and why not, have a little vacation in Miami and catch a game at a beautiful ballpark.

It also told us it is always a good idea to bring your glove to the game. It just feels right. Look at the glove in your hand between pitches, feel it, instead of your phone. Pay attention and you just may catch a foul ball or maybe your father will put in the effort on your birthday to run down a home run in the outfield seats.

And if something crazy happens – and I do mean “crazy’’ – maybe the two teams will try to make it right for a young baseball fan, who now has quite the story to tell. Credit to the Marlins for sending out a really cool gift bag to the fan, and credit to the Marlins TV crew who caught all the strange action in the stands and as the woman stormed away with the baseball said: “That is weird… Don’t be a dork.’’

Also, credit the Phillies, who took care of the young fan and his family with a postgame visit to the home run hitter Harrison Bader and gifted a signed bat and other goodies.

A quick story on Bader. When he was with the Cardinals I asked my friend Chris Tunno, who works for the Cards, to set up an interview with Bader for me one day at spring training. I knew Bader played with Pete Alonso at Florida and I wanted to get some background, and he would go on to tell me a hilarious story about Pete. Someday I will tell that story here as well. But as Chris Tunno warned me, I would have to wait until Bader got done signing autographs for fans. He takes care of fans.

No problem, I said, it’s a perfect spring training day and it was snowing back in New Jersey anyway. I caught some sun and waited for Bader to patiently take care of the dozens and dozens of Cardinals fans in line at the ballpark in Jupiter.

The point is: I have seen Harrison Bader go out of his way to show appreciation to fans and so his greeting the home run-less ball young fan outside the visiting clubhouse was not surprising.

In short, a lot of baseball good came out of the madness of Friday night at loanDepot park.

Well done, Marlins. Well done, Phillies. And well done, dad.