Baseball fans walking extra miles to get hold of the home run balls and foul balls is nothing new in MLB. Last year, a woman wearing Philadelphia Phillies gear went viral for aggressively demanding and taking a home run ball from a child. This time, no confrontation – just a painful miscalculation. On Monday, during a Phillies-Marlins game, a Philly fan’s dive for a foul ball in the sixth inning ended with his face hitting the seats.

“Fan takes an embarrassing fall trying to catch a foul ball,” Jomboy Media shared via X.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, with Bryce Harper at home plate, Marlins’ John King was on the mound. Harper swung at King’s 83 mph sweeper, which took a sharp left turn into the stands for a foul. A fan wearing Phillies gear dived to catch the fly ball coming in. But instead of the play, he fell into the row of seats. His face took a direct hit on the seats. It looked painful enough and made the broadcasters say:

“Oh my God, there is a fan who tried to make a play, and he did not.”

While we have yet to get further reports on his injury, the man almost crawled back up in the row, as someone from the front tried to lend their hand. But the entire incident is just another reminder of what the game means to the fans. And some of them can make the play.

Back in October 2003, at Wrigley Field, during Game 6 of the NLCS between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins, the Cubs were leading 3-0. They were five outs away from reaching the World Series for the first time since 1945, and not winning a ring since 1908. Cubs fan Steve Bartman was sitting in aisle 4, row 8, seat 113. That was the front row along the left-field corner wall behind the on-field bullpen. In the eighth inning, Luis Castillo was at bat for the Marlins with one out and a full count. His pop foul against Cubs pitcher Mark Prior drifted toward Bartman’s seat. What happened next is infamous as the ‘Steve Bartman Incident.’

Cubs left fielder Moisés Alou approached the wall. He jumped and reached for it. But then Bartman, too, attempted to catch the ball, along with several others. His hand slapped the ball, deflecting it away from Alou’s glove. Alou slammed his glove down in frustration and shouted at several fans. Alou and Prior argued for fan interference, but umpire Mike Everitt ruled it out because the ball had broken the plane of the wall separating the field of play from the stands and entered the stands. The Cubs lost that game, and eventually the series.

In fact, last year, one Phillies-Marlins game witnessed a fan altercation over a home run ball.

In the fourth inning, Phillies outfielder Harrison Bader hit a home run into the left-field stands. The ball bounced into some empty seats. A father named Andrew Feltwell ran over, picked up the live ball, and gave it to his son, Lincoln, who was celebrating his 9th birthday. Then a woman wearing a Phillies hoodie marched over and berated the family, grabbing the father’s arm and screaming that the ball was hers.

The Marlins later rewarded the child, making it a happy ending. Now, we are yet to hear if the Phillies have done something similar at Citizens Bank Park because fans on social media are definitely asking for it.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia has entered a hot streak, winning four games back-to-back, as they defeated Miami 6-5. For the Phillies, the return of Alec Bohm to his very best is the best moment, especially on Sunday.

The Phillies got Bohm back

Bohm has had all kinds of turmoil since the start of this season.

From struggling at the batter’s box to personal lawsuits, Bohm was never looking settled. That got changed on Sunday against the Minnesota Twins.

Over the course of the weekend, he hit safely in all three matchups, collecting 8 hits and 5 RBIs while anchoring the Phillies’ offense. And now, the team is not just relying on long balls, as was seen even in Monday’s game.

Bohm’s 5-for-5 night on August 15 marked the first five-hit game of his MLB career. He hit doubles in the second, fourth, and ninth innings alongside singles in the fifth and seventh. On Sunday, with the Phillies trailing 5-0, Bohm crushed his 14th home run of the season, a 408-foot blast, to pull the team within one run. He later blooped a game-tying RBI double in the 8th inning to set up the go-ahead rally.

Entering the series, Bohm had struggled with a .223 batting average earlier in the month. However, his explosive weekend against Minnesota single-handedly pushed his season average to .239 with 69 RBIs overall.

In fact, the Phillies’ on-base percentage has gone up over the last 14 games – from .303 and 30th in the league in the pre-August phase, they are now leading the stat this month at .362. During Monday’s game, the team got on base 18 times in 38 plate appearances, recording 7 walks. They scored 6 runs on 11 hits, without any homer.

If they can keep up with this offensive stretch, while their postseason odds have changed 18.6% in the positive in the last 30 days, it will be no wonder if that changes more.