Last week, it was widely reported that an Oakland Athletics’ season ticket holder is behind the lawsuit directed at Major League Baseball in which the league is accused of not doing enough to protect fans from foul balls.
The A’s have found themselves at the center of the foul ball controversy. Earlier this season, Brett Lawrie’s shattered bat flew into the Fenway Park stands in Boston and seriously injured a fan there. Now, long-time Oakland fan Gail Payne is seeking a California federal court’s help to force MLB leaders to require extended safety netting around the stadium.
There are two very distinct camps in this debate. On one hand, retrieving foul balls has long been a part of baseball tradition. How many SportsCenter clips on ESPN show fans making great catches? Everyone wants to take home a souvenir, and the use of extended netting makes it extremely unlikely that anyone will be able to do that. In addition, the netting can be frustrating to see through, and it can ruin photographs and block fans from getting autographs before the game begins.
But are tradition and souvenirs more important than safety? Pitchers are throwing harder than ever before, and physics tells us that the harder the ball comes in, the harder the ball goes back out. When Aroldis Chapman and Kelvin Herrera throw a pitch at 100 miles per hour, the batted ball will reflect that speed.
And baseball parks are no longer built for fans who want to watch three solid hours of baseball. For example, the Cleveland Indians’ Progressive Field was recently renovated to include a bar where a drink is included in the price of a very cheap ticket, as well as a very high-tech kids’ clubhouse. Baseball organizations have realized that their target demographics are casual fans, and those include families with young children, and adults who just want to drink and have a good time.
Then, factor in the distractions that happen during a game. Vendors patrol the stands, seeking out customers. Digital scoreboards tell fans to send text messages to win prizes. Mascots enter the seating area to entertain children, and ballpark hosts begin to set up their contests, so that they’re ready to go the moment the last out is made.
If drunk adults, small children, and 100 mile-per-hour batted balls sound like a recipe for disaster, that’s because they are. What little time fans do have for reaction is cut short by the fact that there are dozens of other things demanding their attention. By blocking the view with performers and vendors, and requesting that fans look at their cell phones or the scoreboard rather than the game, the teams are inherently creating more risk.
If Major League Baseball does not believe that safety is worth the inconvenience of extra netting, or that it is somehow too expensive or too difficult to see through, then they should make an active move towards decreasing the amount of in-park distractions. There are plenty of ways to do that instead, by eliminating text-to-win contests and reducing the amount of in-park promotions that take fans’ attention away from the field and place it instead on sponsors and advertisers.
Or, MLB could do the right thing and put up a few more nets. It’s their call.