Philadelphia Phillies: Rhys Hoskins denies Father’s Day souvenir

What’s better than a Sunday afternoon game of Philadelphia Phillies baseball? A Sunday afternoon game of Philadelphia Phillies baseball played on a holiday.

With a blisteringly long season that encompasses more than half of the calendar year, baseball games are played on a ton of national holidays. Games can be played on Mother’s Day, the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and even Father’s Day, which, in 2022, just so happened to feature an afternoon outing between the Fightin’ Phils and their division rivals, the Washington Nationals, a short drive down I-95 from the City of Brotherly Love. Though the game could have been watched on Peacock as part of their Sunday morning baseball series, the assembled crowd featured more than a few Phillies fans looking to watch their team continue to perform like one of the hottest clubs in the MLB under new skipper Rob Thomas.

While that last part didn’t happen, as the Phils took a shellacking early on that proved insurmountable, one lucky Nationals fan thought they lucked into a free ball hand-delivered to him by Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins as a sort of Fathers Day peace offering, only to have that opportunity snatched away by the player in question in what amounted to a “too slow”-style bit of physical comedy that will certainly be replayed all over the sports world over the next few days.

Embarrassing? Maybe a little bit but hey, at least the Nationals secured the win; that’s worth a few laughs, right?

Watch Philadelphia Phillies’ first baseman make and break one unlucky fan’s day.

Let’s set the stage: It’s the bottom of the 8th, the Nationals still have their commanding 9-3 lead, one out, and Steve Cishek is up to the plate. With the count at 1-1, Cishek hits a pop-up foul ball in shallow right field. Rhys Hoskins gets to the ball for the out with a light jog, the momentum still taking him towards the stands.

Then, in what felt like a split-second decision, Hoskins’ shade-covered eyes meet a fan seated in the stands, and he reaches his arm out with the ball as he continues to move forward, as if to give the fan the ball as a nice souvenir.

But then, in a move so cold and calculated, one would think Hoskins is a Terminator – the shades help a lot with that comparison – he pivots and throws the ball back into play, never even looking back at his victim.

Stone cold. He even throws up the horns towards the outfield, putting the cherry on top of this stunt.

Watching it again, one has to wonder: How long was he planning on doing that? Was it a spur-of-the-moment choice? Was it something he always wanted to check off the old bucket list? Was the fan even a father?

Overall, in a game that was difficult to watch as a Phillies fan, that moment of levity was at least nice to see. That look of shock and bewilderment from the fan and those around him should be remembered for a while.