Did the Phillies bully a little girl into giving up a treasured memento in exchange for a couple of game tickets and some magic beans? Or is this the case of a scumbag lawyer filing a needless lawsuit to make a baseball star look bad? Hey, why can’t it be both? Yes, now I’m happy.
The date is July 15, 2009 (actual date may vary) at Land Shark Stadium, home of the Florida Marlins and many gigantic bugs. Ryan Howard slugs a home run for the Phillies. In the right field bleachers, thinking about hair care products and possibly one or more Jonas brother, is Jennifer Valdivia, 12, who is at the game with her grandfather and 15-year-old brother. The ball comes to her and she catches it. It happens to be Howard’s 200th career homer, and Phillies management quickly move in for the kill. Their mission? Get that ball from the kid.
Phillies personnel tracked down Jennifer in the stands and asked if she’d like to meet Howard after the game. Cool! But once inside the clubhouse, they convinced — some say strong-armed — the girl into giving up the ball for some tickets and another regular ball signed by Howard.
On returning from the game, Jennifer told her mother, who was not amused. She retained a lawyer to get the ball back. After a few weeks of stonewalling by the Phillies, her lawyer filed a lawsuit. The next day, the ball was returned.
“They’re saying I stole the ball from Mr. Howard,” Delfa Vanegas, Jennifer’s mother, said. “I didn’t steal anything from Mr. Howard. Whoever caught the ball, the ball belongs to that person.
“Why did they take the ball away? Because they knew it was a very valuable ball. They took advantage of my daughter.”
This was not about money, Vanegas insisted, although she admits that she contacted a Miami TV consumer affairs reporter after co-workers told her that the ball’s historical significance gave it added value. The reporter, in turn, put her in touch with Kent.
Howard was the fastest to 200 home runs in MLB history, and the slowest to return a ball. But one can’t help but wonder if the Phillies pulled some kind of switcheroo, and the ball they returned isn’t really No. 200?
All in all an unsavory story in which one is forced to side with either MLB front office schmucks or a shady lawyer. If this were an episode of M*A*S*H, Hawkeye and Trapper would have donated the ball Sister Agnes at the orphanage in the nearby village.
1:37 pm on October 12th, 2009
Just give the guy the ball… it’s a ball. Is she trying to make a buck out of it?
1:59 pm on October 12th, 2009
Putting aside the bait and switch, I would shocked if Florida law bound the 12 year old to the “deal” even if it was honest. Those sneaky minors, the law lets them out of contracts they enter into.
Also, the headline here should be ‘12 year old vs. Phillies management’ because there’s no evidence in the source that Ryan Howard orchestrated the shenanigans, my guess is he had no clue and gave the ball back with no strings attached.
1:59 pm on October 12th, 2009
If Ryan wants the ball, he needs to get it the right way from her. Not intimidate her into giving up the ball. She is 12-freakin-years-old
Good for the mother
2:22 pm on October 12th, 2009
now she has a ball from a team that hates her, i hope noon ever buys that ball from her, no doubt this is the dealings of her parent, tall about cash for them, ridiculous.
2:26 pm on October 12th, 2009
Fuck the Phillies and Ryan Howard. What a scumbag move trying to take advantage of a little girl. Hope they get a little dough and some signed memoribila.
2:41 pm on October 12th, 2009
its obvious the girls parents want money…if the phillies wanted to ball so bad they should pay her
2:46 pm on October 12th, 2009
maybe she can get her moms green card signed
2:47 pm on October 12th, 2009
“now she has a ball from a team that hates her, i hope noon ever buys that ball from her, no doubt this is the dealings of her parent, tall about cash for them, ridiculous.”
Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaat?
She has a team that haters her? Boy, that’s going to be tough when she goes on the road at Citizens Bank Park.
Ryan should just give her something, cash, to get the ball. The ball belongs to the girl, she caught it. Ryan has no more right to the ball than the guy selling beer. He hit it so he owns it? He’s wealthy enough that if he gave her a couple of hundred, that it would be pennies to him.
2:50 pm on October 12th, 2009
Phillies suck just because they are the Phillies. They suck more because they are assholes.
2:54 pm on October 12th, 2009
Hey Jo Daddy- I’m a Phillies fan and I DARE you to make a comment like to to myself or anyone else from the Philadelphia area. It was Phillies MANAGEMENT that took the ball from the girl NOT Howard as you would like to think. I’m sure he’d pound your stinking two cents into the ground or better yet send it flying off the end of his bat. So go root on your stinkin Mets or whatever bandwagon you want to join, this one is headed for back to back Championships…without you or that stupid little girl and her parents!!
2:55 pm on October 12th, 2009
So do you Dave…..so do you!! Cards fan???? LOL….
3:03 pm on October 12th, 2009
P-H-I-L-L-I-E-S!!!!!!!
3:06 pm on October 12th, 2009
BTW I’m gay and would let Howard queer me
4:21 pm on October 12th, 2009
Everything was fine until the mother realized that the tickets were complimentary tickets to a future Phillies vs Marlins game and realized that she would actually have to go to a Marlins game.
Honestly, by requesting the ball back it signifies that this woman wants more than tickets and an autographed Ryan Howard ball. All she would have had to do was ask for a little more before lawyering up. This is clearly a ploy to extort a good some of money (say 10k?). Just another money hungry dirtbag. I think the Phillies offering the girl tickets and autographed ball was plenty.
This world sucks.
4:30 pm on October 12th, 2009
Taylor: Good point. +1.
6:32 pm on October 12th, 2009
I haven’t ever heard of a law that said the fans in the stands should have the right to own anything that is thrown/hit into the crowd.
Granted normally its a given that if you catch a ball or possibly a bat the fan keeps it. However there is no rule that states they have the right to it.
The ball is the property of major league baseball and the family has no right to it.
The girl and her greedy mother should just give the ball back, accept the nice gifts that ryan and the phillies gave her (even though they didnt need to) and move on.
6:44 pm on October 12th, 2009
typical scumbags , dirty dirty scum
7:48 pm on October 12th, 2009
The bottom line is the team should of asked her parents before bartering with the girl. The only scumbags here are the people making racist comments in their post!
1:47 am on October 13th, 2009
Notice how these players hardly ever pay for the ball?This T-shirt and a pat-on-the-head stuff is demeaning, and gone on long enough! Yes, a revolution! Let’s go…
10:19 am on October 13th, 2009
Not all… but obviously many of these players are arrogant jerks as are the clubs which run the teams for them. I would bet the girl was lied to and that’s just fine with MLB.
12:43 pm on October 13th, 2009
Bob@Mizzou, if you are correct, then why do so many memorable home run balls get sold by the person who caught the ball rather than taken back by teams. You can’t sell something that isn’t yours, yet it happens all the time. Good thing the girl’s mom did not hire you to represent her.
5:55 pm on October 13th, 2009
mother is a piece of shit disgrace to humanity
8:01 pm on October 13th, 2009
Bob@mizzou is wrong. A federal judge ,in 1925 , ruledthat a ball out of the field belongs to the fan that catch it.
7:48 am on October 15th, 2009
Give the ball to OJ Simpson.