At the Yankee Stadium for Wednesday’s Minnesota Twins-New York Yankees baseball game, a tragedy occurred when a young two-year-old child was hit directly in the face by a foul ball. The child was sitting in the lower-level seats with her family when the 105 mph line-drive struck her.
Quickly after the incident, the young girl was reached by stadium staff members bring carried out and taken to the NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital. Later that evening, both the father and grandfather came outside to talk to the reporters. When the father was asked whether or not his daughter would be needing facial reconstruction surgery, he responded saying that, “it’s too early to tell.”
While the grandfather acknowledged himself to be a season ticket holder to the New York Yankees, the identity of the family has not been disclosed and the status of the young child’s condition is unknown to the public.
As soon as the child was struck with the ball, witnesses state that the stadium became silent. Yankees third baseman, Todd Frazier, hit the foul ball that went towards the third base dugout. During the five minute delay of the game, it was said that Frazier looked “visibly upset” and teammate Matt Holliday “wiped away tears.”
At the postgame news conference, Frazier, with tears in his eyes, said that his fifth-inning liner that hit the girl was terrible. Frazier commented, “I was shaken up a little bit. I hope she is all right. It is something that I wish never happened. It was tough. Tough to watch. Tough to be a part of, to be honest.”
This is just one of the many recent incidents to occur as a fan gets struck by foul balls flying into the stands. Thus, it brings light to recent requests for protective netting around the home plate of each dugout.
Yankees All-Star Aaron Judge offers an input stating “we need it [the netting].” Brian Dozier, Twins second baseman states, “I don’t care about the damn view of a fan or what. It’s all about safety.”
As of December 2015, the Major League Baseball organization released the recommendation to all MLB teams that they include protective netting from each end of the dugouts in proximity to home plate in order to provide additional safety to the fans.
Today, fans’ thoughts are with the little girl and her family who came to a baseball game in hopes of family enjoyment but left with a severe injury.
Feature Image via Dreamstime|erico
