You got the wrong gal!
A beleaguered baseball fan lambasted by online sleuths as the viral “Karen” who snatched a home run ball from a young Phillies fan at a game Friday said it wasn’t her — and is even a Boston Red Sox fan.
“Ok everyone,” Cheryl Richardson-Wagner posted on Facebook Saturday. “I’m NOT the crazy Philly Mom (but I sure would love to be as thin as she is and move as fast)… and I’m a Red Sox fan!”
Richardson-Wagner has been roasted online as the heartless Phillies fan caught on viral video throwing a stadium-sized tantrum at LoanDepot Park in Miami, bullying dad Drew Fellwell into turning over a home run ball he gave to his young son, Lincoln.
The ball was an early gift for the boy’s birthday.
However the crazed woman falsely claimed the ball, hit by Westchester County native Harrison Bader, was rightfully hers — earning widespread condemnation online over the past two days.
Footage even showed her flipping the bird to fans who booed her at the game.
But the woman’s identity remains a mystery — and Richardson-Wagner said it’s definitely not her.
“We are really upset that someone would make such a ridiculous claim,” one Facebook user commented on her post. “Cheryl we got your back.”
“Omg!” another user — and seemingly an acquaintance — added. “How did they even involve you in this? I would never see you taking a ball from a child! Crazy!”
Richardson-Wagner wasn’t the only one setting the record straight.
The Hammonton School District in New Jersey, where digital sleuths claimed the much maligned Phillies fan allegedly worked, also cleared the air on Saturday.
“The woman identified on social media as ‘Phillies Karen’ is not, and has never been an employee of the Hammonton Public Schools located in Hammonton, New Jersey,” the district said on Facebook.
“Anyone who works for our school district, attended as a student or lives in our community would obviously have caught the ball bare-handed in the first place, avoiding this entire situation!”
The incident nevertheless worked out well for young Lincoln, who received a bunch of baseball goodies from the Marlins and met with Bader, who gifted the boy a signed baseball bat.