Rangers fan will apologize, send ball to boy
06:19 PM CDT on Wednesday, June 16, 2004
From Staff Reports
Matt Starr, the Rangers fan whose quest for a foul ball Sunday made national news, has agreed to send the ball and a letter of apology to the family of 4-year-old Nick O'Brien, according to Gregg Elkin, the team's senior director of baseball media relations.
Starr also will provide the family with an unspecified number of tickets to future Rangers games, Elkin said.
Nick was knocked against the seats during a third-inning scramble for the ball at the Rangers-Cardinals game at Ameriquest Field in Arlington.
Starr grabbed the ball, which landed under the seat of Nick's mother, Edie, and returned to his seat. Nick's father, Jeff, also was at the game.
It didn't take long for fans to respond. Mike Hall of Fort Worth, about 10 rows behind the incident, stood up and shouted, "Give him the ball!" The chant mushroomed to nearby sections. Even Rangers announcer Tom Grieve voiced his disapproval on TV. But Starr refused and was booed.
Eventually, the distraction reached the Texas and St. Louis dugouts. Cardinals outfielder Reggie Sanders, who saw what happened on TV, went to the section and called Nick and Edie down to the rail to give them a bat and ball. The Rangers also gave Nick a bat from outfielder Kevin Mench. By the next inning, Nick had three more baseballs.
Since then, the O'Briens have become media celebrities. They appeared on local news shows from the living room of their Plano home on Tuesday and flew to New York Wednesday for a live interview on ABC's Good Morning America.
Host Charlie Gibson presented Nick with a gift bag from the New York Mets along with three tickets to the Mets-Indians interleague contest at Shea Stadium.
Teams of news reporters circled the Sachse home of Starr, a 28-year-old landscaper, Tuesday. Members of his childhood church said he is a former youth minister who once coached the women's softball team.
Dallas Morning News staff writers Ben Shpigel, Gretel C. Kovach, Pat Gillespie and Kevin Lonnquist contributed information to this report.