Already up 8-4 over the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Tommy Pham launched a ball deep to left field.
Reds outfielder Spencer Steer sized things up and with his back to the wall, leaped and snatched the ball out of the air. He had prevented the game from getting more out of hand, potentially providing an opportunity for his teammates to rally late.
Pham stopped on the bases, thinking he was out and the game would move into the top half of the eighth inning. But then the umpires signaled a home run.
The confusion escalated as the umpires convened and reviewed the call. And as it turned out, a young fan had robbed Steer of robbing Pham. The call was overturned and Steer was credited with the out.
The young fan had caught the ball on the fair side of the fence, essentially pulling it out of Steer’s glove with his own. As a result, the boy and his family were removed from their seats by security.
“Once I saw what happened, I had the same reaction every fan had in the stadium — that it was a pretty remarkable play by the kid,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said, via ESPN. “It looked like the ball was in Steer’s glove and the kid stole it. I don’t know how he did it.”
Before being removed, the young fan was showered with a chorus of “MVP! MVP!” chants by the Chase Field faithful.
Pham, meanwhile, lamented the fact that the boy and his family were ejected.
“I was in the dugout like, ‘Out, it’s clear interference,'” Pham said. “I just feel bad for him because kids really don’t know that interference rules, so sucks that you got to get kicked out for that.”
Major League Baseball has been desperate to avoid another Jeffrey Maier situation and has tightened its interference rules since the 1996 incident. On Friday night, it unfortunately cost that young fan and his family, who clearly didn’t intend to interfere with the game.
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