By Anne Burke
Bryce Harper flipped out on the third-base umpire and then flipped his Phillies helmet into the stands.
Hayden Dorfman, a 10-year-old Phillies fan from Voorhees, New Jersey, had a keepsake he could wear home.
Dorfman landed the lucky helmet after a few adults clutched it in a scrum in the aisle Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park. Cooler heads prevailed and — at the urging of the boy’s father, Aaron — the helmet ended up with a kid.
Let Hayden take it from here.
“So! He threw it over and then there’s like a bunch of dads like diving in for it,” he said. “I knew I wouldn’t get it. But I went in to just see what would happen. It looked like he had a pretty good grip on in it, so I kind of went in. Then [my dad] started the chant, ‘Give it to the kid!’ And then that worked.
“And then, like a while later, we went to the bathroom and got a text: Come back because Bryce Harper wants to sign it. I ran back and gave the helmet to like five security people.”
Phillies staff retrieved the helmet from the youngest Dorfman and later returned it signed by Harper with a No. 3 and Philly Philly! inscription. Harper also signed the helmet Luke 1:37, a Bible verse that says, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Not on this night.
“After the fact, I was walking off, I wasn’t too upset anymore,” Harper said. “I kind of got all of it out. I just threw my helmet in the stands because I didn’t need it anymore. Got the kid, ending up signing it for him and he was super happy. It was good.”
Aaron Dorfman said three men “larger than I am” grabbed onto the helmet after Harper tossed it into the stands. So he decided to calm the situation by coming up with the solution that a child should have Harper’s helmet.
“Ten seconds later it was on his head,” Dorfman said.
Here is Hayden Dorfman, age 10, who caught the helmet Harper threw after he was ejected tonight. A few security guards approached him and told him Harper wanted to sign it.
He said Harper is his favorite player and added that this is “the best baseball game he’s ever been to” pic.twitter.com/uq4J3Ylhwf
— Alex Coffey (@byalexcoffey) September 29, 2023
