Organization of Jackasses?

[Kingdom]

Stay classy Ryan Howard.

PHILADELPHIA – It’s a storyline that could have been lifted straight from a promotional script for Major League Baseball. Jennifer Valdivia, a 12-year-old girl taken to her very first baseball game by her Cuban-born grandfather, is sitting in the right-field stands in Miami’s Land Shark Stadium when one of the game’s top young sluggers, Ryan Howard(notes) of the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies, hits a home run that lands in the row behind her and bounces into her hands, instead of to her envious 15-year-old brother. The ball is not just any home run. It is the 200th of Howard’s career, making him the fastest Major League player to reach that number.

Not only does Jennifer have a souvenir to treasure, but she is whisked away to the Phillies’ clubhouse with a promise, she says, that she’ll get to meet the great slugger himself after the game.

But while the final scene of such a feel-good tale does indeed have the girl happily tucking the baseball under her pillow, it comes only after she says she was stood up by Howard, the ball was taken away because the Phillies said he wanted it, and a lawsuit was filed before she was able to get it back, months later.

Were the Phillies big league bullies over a ball? - MLB - Yahoo! Sports

[missionhockey21]

I was just reading that at lunch. I guess Ryan really doesn't love the kids, despite what those Boys and Girls Club of America commercials tell you.

[DirtyKash]

Maybe he doesn't like Cubans?

[Kingdom]

He just smokes them.

[GiantsFanatic]

And this is why players shouldn't give shit(autographs,bats, balls) to the fans who keep filing law-suits.

From what I heard on the radio was that the girl did get an autograph ball/bat and a pic taken from Howard, and it was the girls parents who decided to file the law-suit regardless, Idiots.

[realmofotalk]

And this is why players shouldn't give shit(autographs,bats, balls) to the fans who keep filing law-suits.

I'm confused. Are you referring to fans in general or the very fans who filed the lawsuits? If it's the latter, a player wouldn't know beforehand that the fan would sue him after the ball is given back in exchange for stuff.

[GiantsFanatic]

Like they always say, it takes one to ruin it for everyone.

[Shadow29]

I kinda found this a joke. I dont know what they really expect to get from that ball. I doubt shes really a Phillies fan and the 200 ball wont be worth as much as others so this whole thing is kinda rediculous. Plus I wonder how much it cost her for that lawyer. Theres no way that the ball was worth the cost of one in the first place.

[realmofotalk]

There is no mention that she's a Phillies fan. The game was in Miami, so if anything she was there for the Marlins. Not that it should matter. She's 12 years old, so she probably doesn't care that Ryan Howard is a Phillie.