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MLB Honchos Drop Ball on Vid Sensation

Refusing to share video of little girl's ball toss makes league look petty

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 17, 2009 7:46 AM CDT

(Newser) – It was a great baseball moment when a stunned Phillies fan watched his 3-year-old daughter toss back a foul ball he had just caught. But Major League Baseball isn't playing ball with the video, Jennifer Van Grove writes at Mashable. MLB has made a copyright claim on the video, making sure all copies except its own are yanked from YouTube and elsewhere. That's robbing the video of its chance to go truly viral and delivering a PR home run for MLB, Van Grove writes.

The video was poised to become a YouTube sensation, but it will be seen by many fewer people now that MLB has decided people can only view it by visiting their own website, where no embed code is provided to let the video be shared. "That practice," Van Grove notes, "seems pretty backwards in this day and age." To give in to the MLB's backwards ways, click the link below to watch the video.

[Images (2)]

[Videos (1)]

[Quotes (1)]

A still from the video pulled by Major League Baseball officials. (AssociatedPress)

A still from a video yanked from YouTube by Major League Baseball. (Allvideozdotcom)

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Phillies fan Steve Monforto talks about his daughter, who tossed back his foul-ball catch. (AssociatedPress)

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The ball incident is one that has all the makings of an Internet hit: the catch was spectacular, the moment Emily threw the ball back is adorable, and the subsequent hug and fan cheering is memorable. - Jennifer Van Grove

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MLB Honchos Drop Ball on Vid Sensation