NEWSLETTER
It’s the first update we’ve received since the horrible moment in Houston when a foul ball off the bat of Albert Almora entered the stands, striking a young girl, and leaving everyone watching in shock.
For now, we can only continue to hope and pray that the little girl will ultimately be OK:
BREAKING: 2-year-old had skull fracture and seizure after getting hit by foul ball at Minute Maid Park, lawyer sayshttps://t.co/LeAFN1cCXi
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) June 26, 2019
My heart breaks for that family, and I hope with every bit that I can that she makes a full recovery in time. She is recovering at home following a skull fracture, subdural bleeding, brain contusions, brain edema, and seizures, according to a statement from the family’s attorney. Otherwise, they would like privacy. It’s such an awful situation.
And it’s one that hopefully MLB teams will continue to act to prevent in the future. Earlier this month, the White Sox became the first team to announce that they will be extending protective netting to the foul poles, and the Rangers and Nationals followed thereafter with their own plans to extend. The Iowa Cubs are also extending their nets.
Hopefully more teams will follow very soon, because it is not reasonable or remotely safe to continue to expect that regular fans can react at all times to 110 mph line drives coming at them with just a second to react. In the age of data and radar technology, surely teams could ascertain in an afternoon precisely where the netting needs to be to remove the safety risk that is very clearly still present.
The safety precaution would be worth it even if what I’m about to say were not true, but it *is* true: your eyes adjust to the netting within moments, and it does not seriously negatively impact your viewing experience at the ballpark. You deal with it. It’s fine.
