Three-year-old Emily Monforto may not know it, but she is one lucky kid.
While other children her age have dads that give new meaning to the word “selfish,” young Emily’s pop, is making headlines for his selfless fathering.
Steve Monforto couldn’t believe his luck when he made the grab of a lifetime at a Philadelphia Phillies baseball game earlier this week. Monforto lunged so far over the railing to snag Jayson Werth’s foul ball in the fifth inning against Washington, fans sitting near him thought he was going to take a header into the stands below him.
Fortunately, Moforto’s spectacular efforts paid off and he caught his first foul ball after years of going to Phillies games.
Cameras captured the proud Phillies’ fan fist bumping the people sitting around him, and they continued to roll as the euphoric dad handed his prize ball to his little princess, Emily, who instantly threw it over the railing.
What happened next has been immortalized on tape and seen by more than a million TV viewers and Internet users. Instead of screaming, yelling, chastising or spanking his daughter for tossing the item that he nearly suffered serious injury to score, the stunned dad gave his toddler a big bear hug and told her everything was going to be okay.
“I didn’t want her to think she did anything wrong,” Monforto said on WIP-AM radio Wednesday.
The catch, throw and cuddle went viral yesterday and now Monforto is being hailed as a “Rad Dad.”
“This was the true reflection of what Philly fans are like,” the Phillies’ vice president of communications told news reporters.
The entire family is scheduled to appear on the “Today” show Thursday.
By the way, despite his daughter’s toss, Monforto still went home with a baseball. More than one, actually.
According to reports, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. and three team employees saw what happened and each grabbed a ball and went up to the stands to give Monforto a replacement.
Not a bad dad, huh?
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