Cubs give boy signed baseball after social media outrage

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Monday, July 23, 2018
Young fan awarded ball by Cubs
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The Chicago Cubs gave a signed baseball to a child after social media became outraged over the perceived wrongdoing of an adult fan, but the cameras only captured part of the story.

The Cubs were playing the St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field on Sunday. Chicago's first base coach tossed a foul ball to the child in the front row.

The child, however, missed the ball and it rolled behind him. The video showed an adult snatch it up, seemingly taking the ball away from the child.

People on social media, including MLB-owned accounts, were not happy with this.

The Cubs wanted to make sure the kid went home happy and delivered him a ball signed by infielder Javier Baez.

"A Javier Baez signed ball should take care of it," the Cubs tweeted.

But in the photos the Cubs tweeted, the boy had two baseballs. It turns out, despite social media and earlier reports, the adult fan had already helped the boy get a baseball earlier in the game.

Chicago sports talk host David Kaplan spoke to members of the Cubs organization to get the full story.

"I spoke with people from the Cubs. The man who grabbed the ball on the widely seen video had actually already helped the little boy get a ball earlier. The young man has a game used ball and a Javy Baez ball. All is well. Guy is A-OK so let it go people," Kaplan said.

So everyone went home happy, including the Cubs who won 7-2.

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