During Friday night's game between the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics, a female fan by the name of Tonya Carpenter was struck in the head by a broken bat and sustained life-threatening injuries. The MLB now plans to address the safety of baseball's fans following the terrifying incident.
The good news is that Carpenter's condition was upgraded from "serious" to "fair" at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital in Boston. She is responsive and her injuries are healing.
The unsettling news is that this could have all been avoided.
"The players, in each of the last two rounds of collective bargaining, proposed that protective netting extend down the foul lines and even to the foul poles, according to major-league sources," FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal wrote on Sunday.
Such netting is required throughout Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.
"The owners, however, rejected the proposals for the 2007 and 2012 labor agreements, citing concerns that additional netting would detract from the experience of ticket buyers in certain premium seats, sources said."
While that might sound irresponsible and negligent on behalf of the owners, their reasoning to reject such a proposal was on behalf of the fans. Diamondbacks' reliever and players' union member Brad Ziegler told Rosenthal the owners are "afraid to upset the fans that pay some of the highest ticket prices" because those fans may lose access to players and miss out on receiving autographs and baseballs.
After the proposal was rejected during the 2007 CBA negotiations, a woman by the name of Susan Rhodes was struck in the side of the face with a broken bat at Dodger Stadium and surgeons needed metal to effectively piece her jaw back together. The MLB then conducted a study to get to the root of high rate of broken bats.
"In 2008, the year Rhodes was injured and broken bats became an epidemic, baseball identified the core concern as the rise of maple bats - three times more prone to shattering than the traditional ash bats - and imposed design standards intended to minimize the risk of broken bats," writes Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.
Oakland A's third baseman Brett Lawrie was using a maple wood bat on Friday night, which ended up striking Carpenter in the head. Now it's back to the drawing board for MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred.
"Obviously the first and most important thing to say is we're all concerned about the long-term well-being of the woman that was injured. That's the most important issue," Manfred told Tim Britton of the Providence Journal before the 2015 MLB Draft on Monday. "From Major League Baseball's perspective, when you have an incident like this, you have to go back and re-evaluate where you are on all of your safety issues. Trust me, we will do that - just like we are on a variety of issues right now at the beginning of my tenure. It's important not to lose sight of the fact that we have taken important steps in this area. Bat safety is much improved from where it was a few years ago. We spent a lot of time, effort and money to make sure that our bats are safer and we have lessened these incidents."
While protective netting extended all the way down to the foul pole could be deemed excessive, the discussion should at least involve extending it along the dugouts. Foul balls and errant bats pose significant dangers to those seated so closely, and the danger skyrockets with the up-and-coming generations that use technology incessantly. Shaikin noted teams want fans to bring their smartphones to the ballpark to better their experience at the game.
"Want to order food that can be delivered to your seat? Look down. Want to take advantage of in-stadium specials on concessions and merchandise? Look down. Want to see all the replays, just like the fans at home? Look down.
"That is different from a fan not paying attention. That is the team diverting the attention of the fan."
If that becomes the new atmosphere during MLB games, Manfred will be tasked with yet another pressing issue affecting the game of baseball.
