Diamonds For Women

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Wed 6/18/08 8:04 pm Post subject: Foul Ball Injuries

Very interesting article from yesterday's L.A.Times.

Several of these incidents I had not known about. It is nice to read about the players' concern for fans' safety.

BASEBALL

"Foul balls are a scary part of baseball"

Foul balls and fans can sometimes be a bad combination. Players say that hitting, and sometimes seriously injuring, a spectator with a foul ball is a memory they don't soon forget.

By Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 17, 2008

It happened more than 38 years ago, yet Manny Mota still can't bring himself to talk about it.

"It's very difficult," the Dodgers coach and former All-Star outfielder said. "It brings up bad memories."

"It" was a foul ball Mota lined into the seats down the first base line at Dodger Stadium during the third inning of an otherwise uneventful mid-May game against the San Francisco Giants in 1970. But what made this foul ball different from the thousands of others Mota hit into the stands during his 20-year big league career was that it hit a 14-year-old boy in the head, just above his left ear.

Five days later, the boy was dead.

"I felt guilty because I hit the foul ball," Mota said quietly in Spanish. "And a young boy lost his life."

It's an occupational hazard all players share, because dozens of balls are hit into the stands at every major and minor league game. Sometimes thrown balls and bats wind up there too. Most of the time they bounce off seats and someone winds up with a souvenir.

Other times they don't and someone winds up with a painful bruise or a broken bone. Or worse.

In April, Susan Rhodes of Sherman Oaks, sitting four rows behind the first base dugout at Dodger Stadium, suffered a concussion and facial injuries when a wooden bat swung by Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies shattered, sending part of it into the stands. And last summer, first base coach Mike Coolbaugh of the Double-A Tulsa Drillers was killed when he was hit in the head by a foul ball during a game.

Eventually, the games went on -- but it was never quite the same for everyone involved.

"Every player, I don't care how mean he is, if he hits a foul ball in the stands and somebody gets hit, they feel bad," Dodgers second baseman Jeff Kent said. "When they get back in the batter's box, I pretty much guarantee you that they're not all 100% like they were before that pitch."

That can disrupt an at-bat, a season, even a career.

Kent's teammate Mark Sweeney was playing in the Cape Cod summer league when he hit a check-swing foul ball into the seats near the plate, hitting a woman in the arm.

"I'll never forget it. She was wailing and screaming," said Sweeney, who was ordered back in the batter's box, where he feebly struck out. "It comes down to you don't want anybody getting hurt. You're a human being and you feel bad about that.

"That's a hard thing to get over."

At least 300 people each year are injured seriously enough by foul balls at professional baseball games that they require hospitalization, estimates Gil Fried, a lawyer and specialist in sports facility risk management at the University of New Haven in Connecticut. But an exhaustive study by authors Bob Gorman and David Weeks found that only two people -- the boy Mota hit and a 68-year-old man attending a minor league game in Miami in 1960 -- have been killed by foul balls at a professional baseball game.

And the courts have repeatedly held that neither the teams nor the players are responsible for the injuries thanks, in part, to the 145-word warning printed on the back of each ticket that says the fans assume "the danger of being injured by thrown bats, fragments thereof, and thrown or batted balls."

A Massachusetts state court, ruling in the case of a woman who ran up nearly $500,000 in medical bills after being struck in the face by a foul ball at Boston's Fenway Park, held that a person of "ordinary intelligence" may be assumed to know that "batters will forcefully hit balls that may go astray." And more recently the Nevada Supreme Court dismissed the arguments of a woman who sued owners of the minor league Dodgers affiliate Las Vegas 51s after she suffered facial injuries in a foul-ball accident.

That does little to assuage the players, however.

"We do care," the Angels' Torii Hunter said. "You still think about it at night, wondering how that kid is doing or how that man is doing that I hit. You feel sorry about it."

Adds Angels broadcaster Rex Hudler, who played 13 seasons in the major leagues: "You don't forget things like that. That's kind of like the worst thing that can happen at a ballgame."

As a boy attending his first big league game at San Francisco's Candlestick Park, Hudler was standing near a girl who was hit in the head by a Willie McCovey line drive. He still carries that image with him.

"Forty-seven years old and I still remember it," he said. "It was an ugly memory to keep."

Which is why Hudler, who also played a season in Japan, wishes American baseball would adopt a Japanese custom and install protective screens down the foul lines as well as behind home plate.

"It kept people from getting their faces smashed and all that," he said. "I felt like the fans were more protected. It worked well."

Yet, few current players believe that will ever happen in the U.S., given the trend in ballpark construction to move seats closer to the action and the desire of spectators and owners alike to make the players more accessible.

The New York Mets' Damion Easley, the father of four children, doesn't look when he lines a ball into the stands. If he hit someone else's kid, he says, he'd just as soon not know.

The Tampa Bay Rays' Eric Hinske tries to look away too -- but with little success.

"When you're on the field for 162 of them, you're going to see it," he said. "You see people get hit every day. They're oblivious to the whole thing. They're not even paying attention. And they got smoked all the time.

"I just try to look away as soon as possible so it doesn't affect my at-bat."

For those who don't turn away in time, what they see can weigh on them.

When former Dodgers catcher Toby Hall was playing for Tampa Bay, he went into a mid-May series in Kansas City batting .326, having struck out only four times in April. But after hitting a 9-year-old boy with a foul ball in his second at-bat against the Royals, Hall struck out -- and fanned three more times over the next two days.

He hit only .224 over the next six weeks and didn't recover until after the mid-July All-Star break.

Mota went through a similar funk. Before that Saturday game against the Giants, he was batting .339. Five days later, he was batting .310 and was so distraught he was benched.

Kent says many players will quietly send an usher or clubhouse attendant to check on the person who was hit, while others will make the visit personally.

The Rays' Carl Crawford, who hit a spectator in the head during a spring-training game, gave the man a bat and still visits with him from time to time. Hunter gives away bats and signed baseballs and Hudler gave wristbands and batting gloves to people he hit.

Former Boston Red Sox outfielder Jim Rice once jumped into the stands along the first base line at Fenway Park to scoop up a bloodied 4-year-old who had been struck by a line drive, then rushed the boy into the trainer's room. Doctors credited Rice's quick thinking with saving the child's life.

"You know the fans are vulnerable. These people that are coming to watch the game, they're not trained to get out of the way of a ball," Sweeney said.

"If something happens there's nothing you can do about that situation. But you can handle yourself [afterward] in a manner that you should."

Mota's son, Jose, also a former major leaguer who now works for the Angels, once hit a foul so hard that the stitching on the ball left an imprint in a woman's forehead.

"I used to go check on her the rest of the season," he said. "I told her I was sorry and she said 'What are you supposed to do?' "

The family of the boy Manny Mota hit was not so forgiving. Jose was 5 when that happened but says one of his earliest memories is of his panicked father rushing to the hospital, only to be barred from entering the boy's room.

"He rarely talked of the incident after that," Jose Mota said.

But he never forgot about it.

kevin.baxter@latimes.com
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Wed 7/30/08 9:29 pm Post subject:

Well, I guess technically this did not happen while I was gone out of the country, but the day after I returned (so my mind was still gone) and I didn't read about it until a couple of days ago.

Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly fouled off a ball that hit a youngster in the stands during Chicago's game vs. Cincinnati at Wrigley Field on July 10, and the child was hospitalized as a result. According to cubs.com, "Dominic DiAngi was taken to Children's Memorial Hospital in serious condition with a fractured skull and swelling around his brain."

Anyway, six days later he was released, and last Saturday the kid not only celebrated his eighth birthday, but was invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Wrigley Field before the Cubs-Marlins game.

From cubs.com:

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Thu 1/28/10 9:08 am Post subject:

Here's one most of us probably did not hear about because it took place at a minor league game. Last September, Luke Holko (now four years old) was hit by a foul ball while sitting with his parents in the front row of a Class A game in Mahoning Valley, (Niles, OH), resulting in destroyed tissue in his brain. The Scrappers are an affiliate of the Cleveland Indians.

This week, several Indians players visited Luke and his family at Akron Children's Hospital, where the boy is still re-learning how to walk and talk. Luke's parents say the baseball community has been overwhelmingly supportive of them since the accident four months ago.

And according to the linked article from MLB.com:

sunnyblue · Posted: Thu 1/28/10 12:40 pm Post subject:

Aw the poor kid, that is so sweet! I hope he does get to go back soon! Bless his parents and the Indians organization. Do we have someone on this board from Ohio, I thought? Did you go to any of these events they had? BTW I just read back on this whole thread which was from before my time here.

forloveofthegame · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 7525 Location: San Diego

Thanks for the post. Hadn't read this thread before either, but the last time it was posted in was 2008.

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Thu 4/1/10 12:07 am Post subject:

What are the odds of this happening?

Glad she is okay...
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Fri 6/11/10 7:33 am Post subject:

A couple of other notable foul ball "hits", one of a celeb:

Dick Vitale, hit in the stomach at last night's Rays-Blue Jays game in St. Petersburg, off the bat of Toronto leadoff hitter Fred Lewis.

Also, taking on a more serious tone, thankfully the little three-year old girl who was hit during BP at Dodger Stadium last Monday is doing well following surgery. A fractured skull is pretty scary! Dodgers catcher Russell Martin, whose line drive struck the child, says he will visit her when the time is right.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

forloveofthegame · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 7525 Location: San Diego

I'm glad to hear she is okay! That must have been a scary moment for that dad! And Dick Vitale! Seems anyone can get hit! ha!

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Tue 6/21/11 5:00 am Post subject:

From last Saturday's White Sox-Diamondbacks game in Phoenix:

Happy early Fathers' Day, Dad--

White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko's father and brother were hit by the same foul ball in the seventh inning.

From MLB.com:

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Wed 8/31/11 6:37 am Post subject:

This really shows what kind of person Greg Dobbs is: After a foul ball off his bat hit a 12 year old boy in the face during a game at Citifield two nights ago, the Marlins third baseman has taken time to show the boy and his family that he cares, visiting him in the hospital yesterday and sending gift items.

From MLB.com:

sunnyblue · Posted: Fri 9/2/11 5:19 pm Post subject:

We already knew it, but he's a great guy! Thanks for posting that about him.

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Sat 4/14/12 10:09 pm Post subject:

Happy birthday to you!

Judith Reese was celebrating her 69th birthday at Coors Field last weekend when she was struck on the right side of her head with a foul ball from Rockies right fielder Michael Cuddyer. Reese was sitting along the third base line when the liner hit her in the fourth inning.

From MLB.com:

GilHodgesFan · Joined: 15 Jan 2011 Posts: 1763 Location: Cedar Rapids Iowa

I'm glad she's okay!!! Not a great birthday - between that and her team losing Sad

_________________
"If you had a son it would be a great thing for him to grow up to be just like Gil Hodges" -Pee Wee Reese (Brooklyn Dodgers)

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Sun 5/25/14 10:30 pm Post subject:

It's been a couple of years since this thread was posted in, too. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the little boy hit by a foul ball--attending his first major league game, no less--during a Braves-Brewers contest in Atlanta last week, requiring hospitalization. Several players visited and showed concern for him, as described in this article on MLB.com.

From the above-linked:

forloveofthegame · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 7525 Location: San Diego

Yes I heard about this too. Poor kid! Hope he is OK now.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Sat 7/11/15 1:46 pm Post subject:

Somehow when I posted about the foul ball injury at Fenway Park last month, I misplaced it, but now that there has been a second incident in nearly the same section of the same ballpark, last night--what's going on in Boston?--I located this thread again. This follows the previous foul ball injury by about five weeks.

From MLB.com:

forloveofthegame · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 7525 Location: San Diego

My gosh, there is a lot going on wrong at Fenway Park this season. Hope there are no others!
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Wed 8/26/15 8:02 am Post subject:

Another foul ball injury took place at Comerica Park in the eighth inning of last Friday's Tigers-Rangers game.

From MLB.com:

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Sat 9/19/15 3:19 pm Post subject:

Admittedly, this is one of those "catch up" posts from a couple of weeks ago: Commissioner Rob Manfred has said that more safety netting in foul territory is a topic of discussion in Major League Baseball.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Sun 2/21/16 11:34 pm Post subject:

Another of my "catch-up" posts: Major League Baseball has recommended that teams install more netting to protect fans from foul ball injuries, advice that seems to be well heeded around the leagues.

From MLB.com:

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Mon 9/25/17 7:15 am Post subject:

Interesting reading back on all the articles/comments here over the years!

Now, many teams are addressing the issue by expanding their netting.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Mon 3/5/18 6:06 pm Post subject:

Since the last time I posted in this thread, the Angels and Dodgers have agreed to extend their nettings.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Tue 2/5/19 1:06 am Post subject:

Nearly a year has passed since I posted about teams extending their nettings in an attempt to minimize foul ball injuries.

Unfortunately, the rarity of a death resulting from a foul ball injury is something that transpired at Dodger Stadium last August, when fan Linda Goldbloom, 79, was killed.

According to CBSsports.com:

forloveofthegame · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 7525 Location: San Diego

Whoa. That really is a scary thought and very sad to think of someone dying from a ball hit into the stands and especially at that age. Franmil Reyes probably feels bad, too.
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

sunnyblue · Posted: Wed 2/13/19 4:14 pm Post subject:

Rest in peace. Sad

I wonder why this news was not reported back then.

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Wed 2/13/19 10:13 pm Post subject:

"Out of respect" doesn't say much for me. I understand not reporting "injuries", but deaths at a major league stadium, particularly having to do with something from the field of play? Maybe you wouldn't publicize it if a fan suffered a heart attack and died, entirely unrelated to the game. But in my opinion, this should have been publicized last August.

From the L.A. Times:

"Daughter of Woman Killed by Foul Ball at Dodger Stadium Calls for Higher Nets"

By CHUCK SCHILKEN
FEB 06, 2019 | 10:05 AM

The daughter of the 79-year-old woman who died last year after being hit in the head by a foul ball at Dodger Stadium said Wednesday she wants to see better protective netting at major league ballparks.

â€œI would love to see higher nets,â€ Jana Brody told the New York Times on Tuesday, the day after the news broke that her mother, Linda Goldbloom, died on Aug. 29 as a result of bleeding in the brain after being struck by a foul ball during the Dodgersâ€™ game against the San Diego Padres four days earlier.

The Dodgers were among the major league teams that extended the width of the protective netting behind home plate last season, stretching from the end of one dugout to the end of the other.

â€œWe donâ€™t want fans to have a false sense of security, like, â€˜Weâ€™re fine now, the nets are widened,â€™â€ Brody said. â€œThese guys hit balls hard, and theyâ€™re throwing 100-mile-an-hour pitches.â€

She added: â€œYou can see right through the nets, so whatâ€™s the big deal? I canâ€™t understand why it took so long for them to even widen it.â€

The Dodgers website lists several sections on the dugout club and field levels that have netting or screening in front of them, but adds that â€œthe height and coverage of netting or screening will vary by sectionâ€ and â€œfans in these sections are still exposed to objects leaving the field of play, including bats and bat fragments, and thrown or batted balls.â€

Goldbloom was seated in the loge level â€” one level above the field level â€” just to the first base side of home plate.

â€œThe trajectory of the ball can only get hit so far until it starts to arc and come down and then be a more manageable ball to catch or whatever,â€ said Brody, who was not at the game with her mother that night. â€œBut where she was sitting, there was no chance for it to lob over. It was a straight shot.â€
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Thu 5/30/19 12:21 pm Post subject:

Sadly, there's been another foul ball injury, during Wednesday night's Cubs-Astros game at Minute Maid Park, for which a child required hospitalization.

The linked article from CNN goes into more detail about the history of foul ball injuries.
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame

forloveofthegame · Joined: 23 Oct 2009 Posts: 7525 Location: San Diego

Oh my gosh that was horrible! However I am with those who say parents have to bear some responsibility if you have young children or babies going to a game. That poor child!
_________________
"Baseball is an allegorical play about America, a poetic, complex, and subtle play of courage, fear, good luck, mistakes, patience about fate, and sober self-esteem." - Saul Steinberg

sunnyblue · Posted: Wed 6/5/19 6:35 pm Post subject:

I felt so bad for Albert Almora. He was in tears over that.

Rob Manfred said today he doesn't expect more netting will be added. Here's an article from Ballpark Digest

dodgerblue6 · Posted: Sun 6/23/19 11:13 pm Post subject:

Well, here we go again.

A young girl at Dodger Stadium was hit on the head today by a line drive off the bat of Dodgers right fielder Cody Bellinger, and was immediately hospitalized.

From the L.A. Times:

"Young Fan Taken to Hospital After Being Hit in the Head With Foul Ball at Dodger Stadium"

By MIKE DIGIOVANNA
JUN 21, 2019 | 3:00 PM

Itâ€™s a scary scene that has become all too familiar in baseball stadiums across the country. A fan is struck by a hard-hit foul ball. A game is delayed while the fan receives medical attention. Players take a knee and say a quick prayer.

It unfolded again Sunday in Dodger Stadium when Cody Bellinger smoked a line drive just beyond the protective netting that extends to the end of the first-base dugout in the first inning of a 6-3 win over Colorado.

The ball struck a young woman in the head. Play was halted for about two minutes while paramedics tended to the fan, who was sitting four rows from the field. After Bellinger flied out to end the inning, he checked on the fan before taking his position in right field.

â€œYou feel for that person,â€ Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. â€œYou see a direct hit to that lady, and it came off the bat hot. You never want to see that happen.â€

The young woman remained in her seat holding an ice pack on her head for the top of the second before she was taken to a hospital for precautionary tests. The name of the fan was not released, but a person in the stadium first-aid office said she was alert and answering questions.

All 30 major league stadiums expanded protective netting to at least the far ends of the dugouts at the start of the 2018 after several fans were injured by foul balls two years ago. That didnâ€™t prevent 79-year-old fan Linda Goldbloom from dying four days after being struck by a foul ball in Dodger Stadium last August.

There was another frightening incident in Houston on May 29 when a foul ball by the Chicago Cubsâ€™ Albert Almora struck a young girl in the head.

The Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals said last week that they will extend the netting down the lines to the foul poles. They are the first clubs to announce such plans.

A Dodgers spokesperson declined to comment on whether the club plans to implement a similar addition.

But Dodgers pitcher Rich Hill, citing a time in the game when balls are being hit harder than ever and exit velocity is measured and celebrated, is so concerned that he telephoned the Major League Baseball Playersâ€™ Assn. last week to voice his opinion: Itâ€™s time to extend the protective netting to ensure fan safety.

â€œItâ€™s such a little investment to protect a life,â€ Hill said. â€œEverybody puts their seat belt on when they get in a car. Times change. A lot of things have changed to indicate in these circumstances that weâ€™re in a different time. Thatâ€™s it. Period.â€

Bellinger agrees with Hill, especially after Sundayâ€™s incident. Asked if the netting should be extended, he said, â€œI would assume that would be a smart decision, just to protect those people in the front row who donâ€™t have much reaction time. I saw the ball hit her face. That was tough.â€
_________________
"The Dodgers have always occupied an enormous place in the history of the game. If the Yankees are the most successful team in baseball history, the Dodgers are the most essential. Their legacy is unique."

-Baseball Hall of Fame