Guardians fan sends heartfelt message to Rays after stolen HR ball incident: “Thank you all for caring about my little girl”
A fan went viral during the Guardians vs. Rays game on Monday after taking a home run ball from a little girl. That girl’s mom shared a message to the Rays.
During Monday night’s game between the Cleveland Guardians and Tampa Bay Rays, a home run ball from Guardians hitter Daniel Schneemann drifted into the right-field stands. What followed was caught on broadcast cameras.
The ball bounced near a young girl who appeared to be in position to claim it, before an adult fan reached in and took it away, leaving the child visibly upset.
The moment spread rapidly online, sparking immediate backlash from viewers who felt the situation crossed a line. The reaction intensified further when the Tampa Bay broadcast highlighted the incident, while the local Cleveland feed briefly cut away during the play.
As the clip circulated, attention shifted not only to the fan involved, but also to the emotional response from the child’s family and the Rays broadcast team. Tampa Bay sideline reporter Ryan Bass stepped in during the game, later presenting the girl and her brother with baseballs of their own to lift their spirits in the moment.
The mother’s heartfelt message
After the game, the girl’s mother, Nikki DeVore, shared a public message that reframed the story from outrage to appreciation. While she acknowledged how upsetting the incident was, she also focused heavily on the support her family received from the Rays organization and fans who reacted in real time. In her message, she wrote:
“Thank you all for caring about my little girl.”
She also expressed gratitude toward the Rays broadcast crew and Bass specifically for stepping in to make the situation right for her children, calling the response “top notch sportsmanship” and emphasizing how much it meant to her daughter in the moment.
“I may be Ohio Grown and forever Cleveland (Jose!!!!) but I will be a Tampa fan on principle alone,” she wrote.
According to multiple reports and social media posts, the fan involved later returned the original baseball several innings later after significant online attention had built around the incident.
The Guardians ultimately went on to lose the game 3–2, but the off-field moment has arguably drawn just as much attention as anything that happened on the diamond.
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