'Phillies Karen' Not Our Employee, South Jersey School District Says

HAMMONTON, NJ — Who is the "Phillies Karen?" Definitely not an employee of the Hammonton School District, officials made clear.

Circulating social media reports claimed that the woman who went viral over the weekend for taking a baseball from a young boy at the Phillies-Marlin game worked for the South Jersey school district.

But district officials were emphatic in their denial of that.

"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 in a statement. "Social media and news reports indicating that she is, are incorrect."

Many online are sleuthing to uncover the woman's identity. When Harrison Bader hit a solo home run into the stands at Friday's game, fans scrambled to catch the ball. A man caught it and gave it to a boy and hugged him. It was the child's birthday, according to NBC Philadelphia, which caught the moment on camera.

But moments later, a woman in Phillies gear approached, and appeared to berate the man before he gave the ball to her.

That man, Drew Feltwell, later told NBC he gave in because he didn't want to do something he would regret in front of his children.

"There was kind of a fork in the road, like, I’m gonna go one direction and then probably regret," Feltwell told NBC. "Or go this direction and do something in front of my kids that, you know, like a teaching moment."

All's well that ends well, though, as staff was later seen giving the boy a bag of goodies - and he got invited to meet Bader himself, who gave the boy a signed bat.

Going home with a signed bat from Bader pic.twitter.com/pCaXHSjLgL
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) September 6, 2025

And Hammonton schools want everyone to know that there is truly no way Phillies Karen is connected to them.

"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 district said.