Toddler hit in the face by a foul ball

[ClassLessCoyote]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/20768433/young-fan-new-york-yankees-game-hit-face-foul-ball

- A young fan sitting in the lower-level seats at Yankee Stadium was bloodied by a 105 mph line drive that struck her in the face during Wednesday's Minnesota Twins-New York Yankees game.

She was transported to nearby NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital.

Her father and grandfather spoke briefly with reporters there Wednesday night. When asked if his daughter would need surgery, the girl's father, who declined to give his name, said: "It's too early to tell."

The toddler was attending the game with her grandparents.

Holy ****!

Click to read more...

 

[TorMenT]

Maybe they should put up some ****ing netting. Such an obvious fix.

 

[Del Preston]

This was awful. I was watching the game and all the players looked sick. Matt Holliday was on base wiping away tears when he realized what happened. Hopefully the child is okay and can make a full recovery. I also feel terrible for Todd Frazier (he hit the ball).

 

[TootooTrain]

One half of me is curious to see the moment of contact, the other half of me is fine not seeing a replay considering the circumstances. Hope the kid is alright going forward.

 

[rangerssharks414]

I saw this on my local news. Scary stuff... I hope she recovers well.

 

[Loosie]

Credit to YES. The live feed didn't catch the ball going into the stands, and they didn't seek out a replay of it.

Nets are the obvious solution.

Also kudos to those in here for so far not blaming the parents/grandparents as I've seen on so many comments and other sections.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

This sounds terrible. Please just put up nets. It's not always people looking at phones. I suppose you could argue that a toddler shouldn't be in the lower level in an area where they may be vulnerable to this though.

Like I remember during game 5 of Toronto v Texas in the inning of insanity when the weird ricochet play happened and everyone at the Skydome was booing and throwing things and people were upset saying that there were babies in the lower level getting hit. Obviously you shouldn't throw ****. That's just stupid. But why are you bringing a baby to a playoff baseball game and sitting in the lower level? That's dumb parenting. Sit in the family zone or get a babysitter. If you have $500 to spend on tickets you can afford it.

EDIT: I'm not saying the parents in these situations shouldn't have been there or it's their fault at all. I'm just saying if you have a small child you have to think of their safety and take all factors into account. Some things you can't control but you can control the amount of risk.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Just awful. It'll actually probably be fans that have the most pushback against this (everyone wants a foul ball), but it's really only a matter of time before the netting goes all the way down to the foul poles along both baselines for shear liability reasons. Considering how litigious of a society we are, I'm honestly surprised that this hasn't been done yet.

 

[KaylaJ]

Crazy how quickly those things happen. I mean if you saw the replay on ESPN I guess it was, you could see it took a second for people around the girl to realize what happened, but once they did their reactions showed it was serious. Can't imagine how the ball players feel since if I was sitting around someone who got beaned, I'd probably feel a bit sick.

 

[bleedblue1223]

Would be interesting to bump the discussion where posters were crazy against putting up nets. Would love to hear their thoughts now.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

Would be interesting to bump the discussion where posters were crazy against putting up nets. Would love to hear their thoughts now.

Me too.

Hope she is okay.

 

[Reality Check]

I'm not against netting. But this type of thing seems to be happening more often than before.

Personally, I feel all cellphones should be banned from the entrance. Just takes away one less distraction.

 

[Winger98]

A bit of a tangent here, but where does the effect of juiced balls get mentioned in this? I know it's easy to brush off as some strange conspiracy, but it's not crazy that some change in manufacturing unintentionally resulted in a more "active" ball. While it could be part of the reason for the uptick in home runs, it's also going to lead to foul balls coming faster and harder, too. Maybe it's time to put the mound back at 15 inches.

 

[Quid Pro Clowe]

The ball was juiced more than the players were in the early 2000's.

 

[Bob Richards]

I'm pretty sure Matt Holliday was wiping away tears from it.

Absolutely horrible.

 

[OhCaptainMyCaptain]

I'm not against netting. But this type of thing seems to be happening more often than before.

Personally, I feel all cellphones should be banned from the entrance. Just takes away one less distraction.

Ban cell phones from games? Sorry, but that's one of the more ridiculous things I've ever heard.

 

[Reality Check]

Makes nothing but sense to me in a sport such as Baseball.

Then again, this is the same sport where you're routinely see a grown man try to catch a foul ball while holding a baby.

 

[rangerssharks414]

I'm not against netting. But this type of thing seems to be happening more often than before.

Personally, I feel all cellphones should be banned from the entrance. Just takes away one less distraction.

While I think people should focus more on the game than playing around on their phones, banning cell phones would not have prevented this.

 

[OhCaptainMyCaptain]

Makes nothing but sense to me in a sport such as Baseball.

Then again, this is the same sport where you're routinely see a grown man try to catch a foul ball while holding a baby.

Honestly, just putting up some extra netting seems a lot easier than banning cell phones for thousands of people, but what do I know.

Also not sure how much it would have helped this 3-year old girl. But yeah, it's cell phones.

 

[Ivan13]

Would be interesting to bump the discussion where posters were crazy against putting up nets. Would love to hear their thoughts now.

Insert "but it ruins game experience" drivel.

 

[Big Poppa Puck]

More netting is fine, but I don't think they should be going all the way to the foul pole. Dugouts or 1B/3B is enough.

 

[KaylaJ]

While I think people should focus more on the game than playing around on their phones, banning cell phones would not have prevented this.

Exactly, look how quickly it happened. Everyone has this love of blaming cell phones but doesn't account for the quickness of the ball screaming towards fans.

Not to mention what about all the other distractions? People moving around back and forth, vendors, etc.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

I'm not against netting. But this type of thing seems to be happening more often than before.

Personally, I feel all cellphones should be banned from the entrance. Just takes away one less distraction.

Exactly, look how quickly it happened. Everyone has this love of blaming cell phones but doesn't account for the quickness of the ball screaming towards fans.

Not to mention what about all the other distractions? People moving around back and forth, vendors, etc.

He's right, let's ban all distractions from games. Henceforth no more food vendors in stands. No ads on the fences that might catch your attention. No more jumbotron content that might similarly distract you. If you get concessions, for your safety, you'll have to eat it on the concourse, lest your attention be distracted by keeping your burger together. Also, while we're at it, let's ban scoring at games, too. I mean when I glance down at my scorecard, I'm not paying attention to the game. Plus I *gasp* keep score on a cell phone/tablet so that's doubly evil, right?

Or, you know, we can just extend the netting at least down to the ends of the dugouts like MiLB has done without much problem.

 

[TootooTrain]

I'm okay with new netting. But along those sidelines I find that the most biggest need to protect is the hot shot screamer line drives. I don't think the netting needs to be as high as the standard one behind home plate. I think upwards of 15 feet. How good will it look? I dunno. But it's a definitive need at this time.

 

[Neutrinos]

You can tell the batter was really upset...

I would be too if I missed that pitch