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| Houston Astros' Kyle Tucker reaches in to the stands for the ball during a game with Oakland Athletics for the 2020 American League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Oct. 7, 2020. / USA Today Sports-Yonhap |
By Park Han-sol
It was four-year-old Alexis Hoskey's first time going to a baseball game back in 2011. A family fun evening at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri, soon turned into a nightmare when a foul ball struck her at an unimaginable speed just above her left eye, leaving her with a brain bleed. Last year, she was diagnosed with ADHD due to the traumatic brain injury.
"There's some permanent damage that she'll have to cope with for the rest of her life, because of one Friday night out with some friends," her father Monte Hoskey recalled in an online press conference, Jan. 28, that hosted several victims of foul ball injuries at Major League games and their family members.
In Korea, KBO stadiums installed safety netting early on to protect all sections surrounding the infield, although some do not stretch all the way up to the foul poles. A safety guard is also stationed at the game to look out for any possible accident that may occur.
Even with this setup, 686 injuries from foul balls were reported from 2015 to 2018, according to data from a report by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. But in the end, the system does succeed in protecting fans from the balls that may threaten their lives.
Unfortunately, the MLB's story is quite different, according to Jordan Skopp, a lifelong New York Mets fan and a baseball fan safety advocate who has started an online petition at FoulBallSafetyNow.com.
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| Alexis Hoskey, who was injured by a foul ball at the age of four in 2011 / Courtesy of Monte Hoskey |
According to NBC News' report in October 2019, the network "found at least 808 reports of injuries to fans from baseballs from 2012 to 2019" in MLB games. Skopp further pointed out that such records do not even account for accidents that occur in the minor leagues, where around 9,000 games ― nearly four times as many as the 2,400 games in major leagues ― are played each year.
He discovered in his research that at least 39 children as young as 18 months old have been seriously injured by foul balls between 2008 and 2019 in both major and minor leagues, which left them with either fractured skulls, permanent brain injuries or other developmental impacts.
At the virtual press conference, Stephanie Wapenski recounted her story at Fenway Park in Boston in 2015, where she was hit in the head with a ball directly between her eyes during a Boston Red Sox game. That night, she was diagnosed with a concussion and had to receive up to 40 stitches.
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| Stephanie Wapenski was hit in the head by a foul ball in 2015 and had to receive up to 40 stitches. / Courtesy of Stephanie Wapenski |
"She was taken right to surgery and I never got to talk to her again. She never recovered to the point where she could speak or recognize or do anything. … It's tragic and something that could have been averted," her husband Erwin Goldbloom recalled.
With COVID-19 vaccines beginning to roll out and spring training coming back in the next few weeks, fans may once again be able to return to the seats. Although they may be safe from the virus, the danger of being struck by a ball traveling at 100 miles per hour still remains a possibility.
That is why Skopp and other proponents are calling for the improvement of fan safety through extended protective netting, independent netting councils and abolishment of the "Baseball Rule," which puts the risk on fans and makes it difficult to sue over injuries. Although some MLB stations have complied to extend the netting beyond the dugouts, the fight is far from over.
Wapenski added she wants to feel safe enough to take her two young girls to the ballpark once again. "I want to not think about where we're sitting or purposely have to take them far away from the action, because that's the only safe part of the park. I don't want to go to a game and play defense; I'm there to relax."
Even though installing the netting is relatively cheap and quick, part of what made the effort difficult was that some fans viewed such protection as an obstruction to watching the game, while others enjoyed feeling "macho" in catching a foul ball from their seats, Skopp and Goldbloom said.
But this is precisely because the fans weren't given a serious chance to actually be aware of how injuries occur in the same sections of the same stadiums over and over again.
"It's not a matter of if, but it's when the next injury is going to occur," Skopp stressed. "South Korea plays in a culture where there's respect for fan safety and also for the players. Players carrying the burden knowing they're in the community that does harm to people? That can't be a good thing."
