Dad happy for added protection

It’s about time. That was the reaction from the father of the girl who was hit in the face by a line drive on Sept 20 at Yankee Stadium when told the club announced Sunday it would extend the field’s protective netting in the offseason.

“It’s what they should have said from Day 1, but I’m happy to hear this,” Geoffrey Jacobson told the New York Times. “I hope the remaining teams follow suit, because it’s not just about the Yankees.”

Ten of Major League Baseball’s 30 teams have netting that extends to the ends of both dugouts. Jacobson said the Yankees’ silence prior to their Sunday announcement was a big reason he chose to speak and write a statement to the newspaper. Prior to the Bombers’ switch in stance, Jacobson called the team’s inaction “ridiculous” and said economics should dictate improving people’s safety.

“[A baseball stadium] shouldn’t be a place where you could die, and it doesn’t have to be,” he said. “I get the reasoning and the pressure, but it’s senseless.”

Jacobson considers it “fortunate” his daughter, who will turn 2 this week, is home from the hospital. When he walked into her hospital room, he said, he saw her eyes were swollen shut and she had multiple facial fractures, including her orbital bone and nose, as well as bleeding on the brain. Doctors have yet to determine whether she will need facial surgery or if her vision will return to normal. She also has a bump on her nose.

“To me, that’s a cosmetic thing; it’s not a worry to us because of how serious the other injuries are,” he told the Times.

Jacobson, who is a real estate lawyer, said he has not considering legal action against the Yankees and the only club officials who contacted him were from the public relations department. He has spoken to third baseman Todd Frazier, who hit the ball that struck his daughter.

“Not only is he a worldclass athlete, but he is a better person and that is what really matters,” Jacobson wrote.

The child’s grandfather, who was sitting with her at the game along with her grandmother and 4-year-old brother, has taken heat — most notably from WFAN host Mike Francesa — for not shielding her from the ball. Jacobson said the grandfather put up his hand, but the ball grazed off it and hit his daughter.

“There is nothing they could have done in a split second with a ball traveling 105 mph,” Jacobson wrote. “It’s unfortunate some have targeted them.”