This past week, a fan at a Boston Red Sox game was struck in the head by a bat and seriously injured. The fan had to be stretchered out of the stadium and sent to the hospital and nearly lost his life.
In a game that involves balls traveling at speeds up to 100 mph (and even faster sometimes when the bat makes contact with the ball and where bats get "broken" as well as slip out of players' hands into the stands, it seems unnecessarily dangerous compared to the other major sports for fans. Basketball, football, hockey all have just one ball in play at all times (as compared to guys in the bullpens for baseball) and also balls that can't be thrown at a speed that can kill someone, or a puck that would get stopped by the guard rail if it was a screaming liner. Baseball, for the most part, doesn't have that. Balls get lined into the stands where fans are all the time, and I always cringe when a really fast ball goes into the stands and it looks like it rattles around. Sure, the expectation (and the way baseball escapes liability) is that fans are paying attention to the game and know when a ball is coming, but especially with the way people are always on their phones now, can we expect that they're paying attention to every pitch? (I went to a baseball game recently where most of the people in my row were texting or chatting to people around them.)
And what if a bat comes flying into the stands? One can feasibly catch a baseball (I've never actually had a ball come to me in a real game but I imagine it would hurt to catch it with one's bare hands, that's why baseball players wear gloves), but a bat? really dangerous to try to catch and a lengthy wooden object that's presumably spinning around due to the batter losing control of it. That's extremely dangerous, especially one that's been broken and there are shards/ pointy ends. (kind of what happened to the Red Sox fan last week) As long as that scenario is in the realm of possibility, I gotta say baseball's a dangerous game to
Plus, the nature of the game makes it dangerous for the pitchers. Aroldis Chapman, Reds closer, got hit in the face by a line drive last year during spring training that caused him to get stitches. Sure kind of a fluke accident, but there's no guarantee it never happens again, especially with the way Aroldis and some other pitchers throw. It's 60 feet from home plate to first base and much less (probably around 40 feet) to the pitcher's mound. You're banking on either 1.) the ball barely missing the pitcher or 2.) the pitcher reacting in time if the ball is coming right at him. Not something I'd want to bank on if I were a major league pitcher, especially if I'd already been hit before in the face. (Actually I have, I got a black eye and did not feel good for the next month)
I guess my point is, baseball is an inherently dangerous game. I love it and I love watching it (well, mostly highlights now, can't sit through a whole game even if my fantasy pitcher is on the mound) but it's got serious safety concerns that don't get nearly the amount of scrutiny that football does. MLB is currently in the process of examining what protective measures can be taken, including more protective netting behind home plate. I support more safety measures, and let's get more physicists and scientists in on this issue regarding how bats break, the trajectory of possible loose shards from home plate, how best to set up the netting to cover the most likely areas of danger, etc.
Meanwhile, Tonya Fair, the victim of the broken bat incident, has reportedly been upgraded to fair condition. Hope she recovers quickly and that this kind of "random bad luck" is mitigated and eliminated.
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
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