Ball girl at Dodger Stadium becomes Twitter star by stopping field invader

Tom Gatto

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Ball girl at Dodger Stadium becomes Twitter star by stopping field invader image

A spectator got loose in the Dodger Stadium outfield Sunday afternoon. He was on his way to an escape after speeding past more than a half-dozen security officers.

He had just one person to beat: the right-field ball girl, who had jumped into the action to become the last line of defense.

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She did her job so well that she became an instant Twitter star.

The sudden free safety (or kicker/punter, as mentioned on the internet) showed good lateral movement and balance and kept her shoulders square while forcing the play back inside. She may have tried an arm tackle, too. Regardless, the runner was soon flipping over the low wall (kind of a 12th defender) behind her. Security finally caught up and handled the situation from there.

A search of "ball girl" after the incident yielded replays from all angles.

Speaking of doing your job, you knew this meme would show up. Twitter is nothing if not predictable.

Tom Gatto

Tom Gatto Photo

Tom Gatto joined The Sporting News as a senior editor in 2000 after 12 years at The Herald-News in Passaic, N.J., where he served in a variety of roles including sports editor, and a brief spell at APBNews.com in New York, where he worked as a syndication editor. He is a 1986 graduate of the University of South Carolina.