Father Shows Off Amazing Dad Reflexes To Save Kids From Errant Bat At Mets Game
A New York Mets fan received “dad of the year” status after saving his two sons from a flying bat during a baseball game on Friday evening.
During the first inning of the Mets-Nationals game at Citi field, a dad in the stands proved to be a hero to his sons when Byrce Harper’s bat shattered sending the heavy barrel with a jagged edge flying into the stands, according to the website for MLB.
Thankfully, when the fan saw the piece of bat as it broke and flew toward his two sons, he was able to reach up with his bare hand and swat the piece away.
DOTY: Dad Of The Year pic.twitter.com/tn6KpN87gX
— Cut4 (@Cut4) August 24, 2018
According to Twitter, the hero dad was allowed to keep the bat that almost hurt his kids.
The protective netting at Citi Field extends to the near end of the dugout, but the bat cleared it and made its way into the stands. This is not the first time incidents have happened, sometimes leaving fans injured.
Many baseball fans remember the 2015 incident when a woman was struck by a flying bat at Fenway Park. She suffered life-threatening injuries during a Red Sox-Oakland A’s game.
The fan was injured by a bat that shattered and flew into the stands during the second inning after the bat broke off at the handle. The woman, Tonya Carpenter, was sitting in the first few rows behind the Oakland A’s on-deck circle.
Carpenter was with her son at the time she was hit by the flying piece of bat and said in a statement the “most horrifying part was she did not know what happened to her son,” wondering if the bat hit him as well.
Sobering to watch ushers wiping blood from row where young woman was sitting
— Gordon Edes (@GordonEdes) June 6, 2015
An ESPN reporter said fans offered their shirts to medics to help stop the woman’s immense bleeding, who lost consciousness for a time after being hit. In 2016, Carpenter issued a statement dedicating her efforts to increasing ballpark safety after being left with a recurring nightmare of her hand separated from her son’s when she was injured.
“Tonya feels it is her mission to communicate that it is essential that the league and the teams throughout the nation do what needs to be done to make sure children can be reasonably safe while they enjoy America’s pastime.”
Carpenter’s injury was used to pursue a lawsuit in 2015 pushing for additional safety netting in ballparks, netting that Citi Field lacks.
This dad of the year possibly made the most important play of the New York Mets during the 2018 season, protecting his sons.
