Cubs Fan Ripped For ‘Stealing’ Ball From Kid — But There’s More To Story

If you’re an adult at a Major League Baseball game, there are both written and unwritten rules to follow. And the most well-known unwritten guideline of them all was flagrantly violated Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

… or was it?

In the fourth inning of the Chicago Cubs’ 7-2 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, cameras caught Chicago first base coach Will Venable tossing a ball toward a young fan in the front row. But the little boy misplayed the ball, allowing a shaved-head, sunglasses-wearing man to scoop it up instead.

Here’s the play:

As you can imagine, the man was almost universally condemned by those who saw the clip.

Furthermore, the Cubs responded by giving the boy a ball autographed by Chicago second baseman Javier Baez.

Happy ending, right? Perhaps, but the true victim in this tale actually might have been the man scorned for taking the ball.

Check out these tweets from Cubs fan Chuck MyCoff:

NBC Sports Chicago broadcaster David Kaplan also weighed in on #BallGate.

CNBC’s Jeff Rose corroborated MyCoff’s claims.

At this point, the evidence is overwhelming that the man who “stole” the ball actually was rather generous throughout the game, and that the little boy actually made out like a bandit in his afternoon at the Friendly Confines.

But does that excuse the man from snatching the ball in the fourth inning?

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there are more important things to worry about.

Regardless, let this be yet another lesson to not jump to conclusions.