With nets in place, safety wins day
The Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians players noticed it the moment they stepped onto Progressive Field before their season opener Monday was postponed.
The Kansas City Royals marveled about it Sunday upon their arrival at Kauffman Stadium. Net. Nothing but beautiful net. It has nothing to do with the Final Four, a Stephen Curry three-pointer or a LeBron James dunk.
It’s the netting that is stretched to within at least 70 feet from home plate and in some cases, such as at Kauffman Stadium, expanded across the entire dugout.
The players will tell you it’s the most beautiful sight of the 2016 season.
“I’m definitely happy to see Major League Baseball make that adjustment,” Red Sox ace David Price told USA TODAY Sports. “Everybody has seen bad incidents. I couldn’t imagine being a hitter that hits a screaming foul ball that hits somebody, especially a kid or a small child.
“That’s not something you
want to be part of, whether it’s a foul ball, a broken bat or a bat that slips out of somebody’s hands. “That will mess you up.” Just ask Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, who remembers the foul ball he hit during his rookie year that hit a woman directly in the face, stopping the game for nearly five minutes.
“You never forget something like that,” Hosmer said. “It just scares you. I remember (Royals manager) Ned (Yost) even asking me if I wanted to finish the game, because it’s such a terrible feeling not knowing if the lady is going to be OK or not.
“It was definitely scary. I know I wouldn’t want my mother sitting back there. But now that the nets are up, it will help us a lot.”
Red Sox President Dave Dombrowski forbade his children from sitting close to the field in seats that weren’t protected by netting. It was just too dangerous, he said. The risk wasn’t worth the view.
“The players would feel so bad when something would happen,” Dombrowski said. “They would say, ‘Can’t you do something about this?’ ”
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred did something about it this winter, strongly urging every club to install netting that would shield balls within at least 70 feet of home plate. The Red Sox, who had two ugly incidents last season, wasted no time implementing the changes.
They felt helpless last season watching Tonya Carpenter 44, struck in the head by a piece of Brett Lawrie’s broken bat while Lawrie was playing with the Oakland Athletics. She required brain surgery and was hospitalized for eight days. Five days later, Stephanie Wapenski, 36, was hit in the forehead by a foul ball, requiring more than 40 stitches.
“You hit a hard foul ball right over somebody’s dugout, and it takes the focus from your at-bat,” Red Sox outfielder Chris Young said, “worrying about whether it hit somebody, and — if it did — are they OK?
“It’s dangerous, man. People don’t realize it. People forget that baseballs are really hard. It’s weird, you’ll see people barehand line drives, and it boggles my mind. Those balls come in hot. People get hurt. You see it all of the time. If I hurt somebody, even though I can’t control it, I would feel terrible.
“You’re just trying to play a game. The last thing you want to do is hurt somebody. It’s not something you want on your conscience.”
Perhaps no one sees fans’ pain and injuries more than catchers. They’re involved in every pitch. They hear the crack of the bat, watch the ball whizzing into the stands and recoil.
Red Sox veteran catcher Ryan Hanigan has seen enough to last a lifetime.
“I’ve seen some bad ones, even last year,” Hanigan said. “People carted off the field, broken bones, blood. It’s a scary thing to watch. Even if you’re paying attention, people don’t have time to react.
“We needed to do something.”
The biggest resistance had been from fans, who conveyed their displeasure of expanded netting to club ownership, who passed it along to the commissioner’s office. They were worried it would obstruct their view, diminish their experience from their expensive seats.
Yet, as Price pointed out, the most expensive seats in baseball are the ones directly behind home plate.
And they all have protective netting in front of their faces.
“Fans may not like it as much at first,” Price said, “but it’s not like you’re going to miss anything because of the net.
“They’ll definitely appreciate it whenever they have those screaming foul balls and broken bats hit that net.” So far, so good. The fans sitting behind the dugouts at Kauffman Stadium on Sunday night told that after a few innings the netting was hardly noticeable. They actually felt safer.
Really, it’s no different from airport security lines. Sure, we hate to take off our shoes and belts and tug the computers out of our bags, but after a while you get used to it.
“I’m really happy about it,” Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly said. “We had a couple of really scary situations at Fenway last year, and it shakes you up.
“Safety should always come first. I wouldn’t even mind if they made changes about fielders reaching into the stands to catch foul balls. I’d rather lose an out here or there if it meant that everyone was safe.”
Well, such a rule might have prevented Steve Bartman’s life from ruin in Chicago.
But it’s not too late to prevent severe head injuries, or perhaps even a life, simply by a little extra netting that won’t harm a soul.
“This is going to make everyone feel a whole lot better,” Red Sox veteran second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. “Not just the fans, but the players, too.
“Everyone’s going to feel safer.”
Play ball. FOLLOW BOB NIGHTENGALE @BNightengale for baseball analysis and breaking news.