Going to a baseball game shouldn’t be dangerous ©2017, The Washington Post Sep 23, 2017 Play stopped at Yankee Stadium for four excruciating The question would be different if netting seriously minutes Wednesday. Slugger Todd Frazier had just rocketed detracted from the fan experience. But anyone who has been a 105-mph foul ball into the stands, where it struck a young lucky enough to score seats behind the fine mesh netting girl in the head. Frazier knelt down, a pained look on his face. currently in major league stadiums - made of fibers only 1.2 Some of the other men on the field shed tears. The girl was millimeters thick - knows otherwise. Some stadiums even have rushed to the hospital, where her father later told reporters netting that can be retracted for tossing baseballs, T-shirts and that she is doing “all right” - but that it is still unclear whether other items into the stands when no one is batting. she will need surgery. Major League Baseball in 2015 issued a recommendation Player after player has since insisted that stadiums that teams maintain netting behind home plate, extending to need more netting to protect fans from incoming foul balls. where each dugout begins. Some stadiums - including Nationals Anyone who has sat near a major league dugout knows how Park - extended their netting further, to the end of each dugout. tantalizingly - and alarmingly - close those seats are to the Every team should provide at least that much coverage. But action. Balls whizzing toward the crowd at 100-plus mph leave even netting protecting the rows above the dugouts might not close-in spectators practically no time to react. have helped last Wednesday night. The girl was sitting behind We wish Wednesday’s story were unique, but it is far from the third base line, past the dugout. the first time that an errant baseball has struck a spectator. MLB should look to stadiums in Japan, where netting often Fans have lost vision, required reconstructive surgery, endured reaches from foul pole to foul pole. And the next time the shattered skulls, even been seriously wounded by flying bat organization issues an obvious safety finding, it should come in fragments. A 2014 Bloomberg statistical analysis found that the form of a requirement, not a mere recommendation. 1,750 spectators are hurt each year by flying balls and bat ——— fragments. Not every incident is as horrifying as Wednesday’s. Some no doubt occur because people lean in to catch balls coming their way. But a large number of injuries would nevertheless be prevented if major league ballparks installed more extensive netting. The reaction among some is to blame the injured, arguing that they should have been paying more attention, or to blame those around the victims, insisting that it is irresponsible to bring children to dangerous areas of the park. But even the most conscientious of baseball fans might fail to react in time - either to protect their loved ones or themselves. The balls move very quickly. And it is just reality that, over the course of a three-and-a-half-hour game, even the most attentive fan may look away once or twice. ©2017, The Washington Post. Sep 23, 2017.
