FIX IT NOW!
Players say Yanks must add netting after young girl hit by Frazier liner
Todd Frazier collects his thoughts and emotions after he rocketed a foul ball into the stands that hit a young girl during the Yankees’ 11-3 win over the Twins, which was stopped for several minutes as the fan was attended to. A man who identified himself as the girl’s father later said she was OK.
Another young fan was drilled by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium, and the players have seen enough. They want the Yankees to extend the protective netting farther along the foul lines.
“All parks should have it all the way down,” CC Sabathia said after the Yankees’ 11-3 win over Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon was marred when a foul ball hit by Todd Frazier in the bottom of the fifth struck a girl, who was sitting beyond the third-base dugout, in the face.
Asked if his own children sit behind a net when they come to games, Sabathia said: “All the time. It’s not even a question.”
The game was delayed for nearly four minutes as the girl received medical attention. She was carried from the stands and taken on a stretcher out of the Stadium, and transported to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.
A man who identified himself as the girl’s father leaving the hospital Wednesday night said, “She’s doing OK,” adding, “She knows she got hit with a baseball.”
“It was very difficult to be there,” a woman who identified herself as the girl’s grandmother said as she returned to the hospital late Wednesday night with overnight bags. “It was a tragic accident.”
When asked if the girl would need surgery, she replied, “As far I know, no. We haven’t been updated.”
Yankees manager Joe Girardi also said he was told by team security the girl was “OK.”
The Yankees declined further comment, citing HIPAA privacy laws.
Frazier immediately put his hand to his mouth and went to one knee and other players were visibly shaken by the injury. Frazier bent down on one knee for much of the stoppage, while Matt Holliday could be seen wiping tears from his eyes as he stood on second base with the Yankees leading the game, 9-3. Holliday declined to speak following the game.
“Tough to watch,” said Frazier, who did not look at the video of the play. “Tough to be a part of, to be honest.” Frazier flied out to center later in the at-bat. It’s not the first time a spectator has been injured at Yankee Stadium this season.
An Aaron Judge foul ball hit a male fan in July, causing him to need medical attention, and in May, a young boy was hit in the head by a Chris Carter broken bat and was left bloodied. A source said following the Carter incident the team would look into installing extra netting, and that source repeated the same Wednesday.
The Yankees don’t play at home again until Monday against the Royals.
The decision to increase netting is up to individual teams. The Mets extended the netting down the first- and third-base lines at Citi Field following the All-Star break this season.
Atlanta, Houston, Kansas City, Minnesota, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Texas and Washington also have extended netting.
Major League Baseball sent out a memo before the 2016 season “encouraging” teams to have “netting that shields from line-drive foul balls all field-level seats that are located between the near ends of both dugouts [i.e., the ends of the dugouts located closest to home plate, inclusive of any adjacent camera wells] and within 70 feet of home plate.”
Girardi said he wasn’t sure if the added netting would have helped Wednesday, but a fan near where the girl was sitting called her “defenseless.”
“She looked like she was 2 or 3 years old,” said Angela Casolaro of Manhattan. “We asked the staff and they said she was alert.”
Casolaro is among those fans unsure about whether they want more netting. But Chase Headley believes the choice is simple.
“It’s something [the players] been complaining about for years, not having that covered,” Headley said. “It’s scary. We’re praying for the kid and hope for the best, but there’s nothing you can do when it’s coming at you that fast. I don’t think the average person understands how fast those things are coming. To have to see that, for me, it’s sickening.”