I took my 11-year-old daughter and her best friend to a White Sox/Astros game two weeks ago. We had decent seats off first base, close enough to be within range when Abreu threw the occasional ball into the stands.
In between innings, he threw one just to our left, and my daughter’s friend (also 11-years-old) grabbed it. Within a split second, a 20-something guy snatched it out of his hand. Before I could even jump in, the entire section started chanting, “GIVE THE KID THE BALL! GIVE THE KID THE BALL!” The shaming worked; he grudgingly gave it back my daughter’s friend. My blind rage (which had fired up in an instant) was quickly leveled off by a successful execution of frontier justice from the crowd.
I truly don’t get the mindset, but I certainly wasn’t surprised when it happened again this week on camera: