Two Latest Incidents Urge The 30 MLB Teams To Improve Safety Netting To Protect Their Fans

In the first incident, a 2-year old girl was hospitalized after being struck by a foul ball in Yankee Stadium last month. Last week, a 60-year-old man filed a lawsuit against Chicago Cubs and the MLB after he was blinded in one eye by a foul ball in Wrigley Field. These two incidents have forced the MLB and its teams to seriously update the safety netting in the ballpark.

The incident that hit the little girl happened on Wednesday, Sept. 20 during the game between the New York Yankees and the Minnesota Twins in Yankee Stadium. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Yankees’ Todd Frazier hit a foul ball and the 105 mph ball struck the girl in her head.

Yankee Stadium stood in silence. The game was suspended for about four minutes as the girl was attended to, while the third baseman Frazier took the knee. She was taken to the hospital by her grandparents. Last week, her parents made a remark about the incident.

In his written statement, the girl’s father, Geoffrey Jacobson explained how he was in great fear as he found her little girl lying unconscious in the hospital bed. She suffered multiple facial fractures and her eyes were swollen shut. Five days later, his precious little girl, whose name he did not want to reveal, was discharged from the New York-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital.

The second incident was even worse. A 60-year-old man, John “Jay” Loos was blinded in his left eye after the foul ball hit him. He was attending the game between Chicago Cubs against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Aug. 29 in Wrigley Field. He was sitting in the dugout when the ball hit him in the eye.

Loos said that he did not see the ball and he just felt a grueling pain in his eye. At that time, he instantly knew that the ball hit him.

“It just hit me and I wasn’t unconscious so I knew I must have been hit by a ball.”

He has filed a lawsuit against Chicago Cubs and the Major League Baseball. The lawsuit was filed in the Cook County Circuit Court on Thursday, seeking for $50,000 in damage claims.

His son, Adam Loos in the news conference on Monday said that his father broke his nose and six bones around the left eye. He revealed the incident could be prevented if the Chicago Cubs provided sufficient protective net.

These two incidents have left no option for the MLB and its 30 teams but to improve safety netting in their ballparks. Four MLB teams have agreed to extend the protective netting, including the Cincinnati Reds, San Diego Padres, Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners. However, the MLB must enforce the regulation to all teams to protect their fans and prevent a similar incident from happening.

[Featured Image by Stacy Revere/Getty Images]