In the top of the 12th inning of the Phillies' 4-3 win over the Reds on Thursday night, Jayson Werth ran into foul territory and reached up into the stands to snag what he thought would be the third out of the inning. Instead, a fan out-reached him and snagged the ball before Werth could grab it. The fan, who was in Phillies' gear, immediately caught the brunt of Werth's anger.
Two days later, Werth isn't exactly apologizing for the incident. After the fan went on to local radio to give his side of the story -- that the ball was about to hit his 10-year old son and he was trying to keep that from happening -- and say that he wasn't happy Werth cussed him out in front of his son, Werth talked about the incident with the Philadelphia Inquirer, saying that he "felt bad" for the language he used, but stopping short of apologizing.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened in baseball, of course. Beyond the famous Steve Bartman incident in Chicago in the 2003 NLCS, there are always a couple of plays a year where a fan focuses on the ball, lose tracks of the player on the field, and takes an out away.
In this incident the Phillies' fan in question wasn't reaching out onto the field for a ball that wasn't his, but instead reacting to a ball that was hit more or less right at him.
It's easy to say that he should've kept his eye on Werth and known that the Phils' right fielder would be there to make the play, but who can honestly say they would've done something different in the heat of the moment? Werth has every right to be upset, of course, but this is just one of those things that happens occasionally in modern ballparks that shrink foul territory and put fans right on top of the field.
The video is embedded below; you can draw your own conclusions.
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