In a game between the Yankees and Twins yesterday at Yankee Stadium, an incident occurred involving a young girl sitting down in the left field line and a Foul Ball. In the fifth inning of the game, Yankees' Todd Frazier lined a foul ball into the stands that struck a toddler square in the face. Frazier and other players on the field reacted immediately and the game was put on hold briefly. The players, especially Frazier, were visibly upset and worried about the young fan as ballpark personnel attended to her. The line drive was reported to have en exit velocity of 105 miles per hour, which gives little to almost no reaction time to a fan sitting that close to the field.

The fan was quickly taken to New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medial Center as her face was bloodied by the line drive. The television networks caught glimpses of the distressed ballplayers on the field without showing a replay of the ball actually hitting the girl. Frazier was very emotional in the post-game interview with tears in his eyes as he wished her the best. The girl's father, who chose not to be identified, told WABC New York that, "She's doing alright. Just keep her in your thoughts." More details on the injury have yet to come.

The following tweet by Sporting News' Jordan Heck shows the incident as it happened live and the reaction from the players on the field.

A cry for action

This unfortunate incident led many to lobby for extended netting around the walls of the ballpark. Players, ex-players, writers, and fans alike took to their respective media outlets to put forth their case for more netting.

Twins' Brian Dozier -- who witnessed the incident --was quoted by ESPN as saying, "[E]very stadium needs to have nets, that's it. I don't care about the damn view of a fan or what. It's all about safety." Later on Sports Center his comments were backed by former All Star Mark Teixeira as he told his co-hosts, "He's [Dozier] 100% correct, you have to have nets...put the nets up."

Many fans took to Twitter in support of the idea of more nets around the park, and along with that came some surprising controversy.

There are those who argue against it because of "obstructing the view," yet the people who sit directly behind home plate behind netting never deal with obstructed views because of the way it is made, it is barely noticeable. It is perfectly easy to sit and watch a game behind the nets and not get bothered or distracted by it, and nobody should go to a ballpark worrying about getting seriously hurt. It may be easy to say, "pay attention," but those who sit close down the line cannot react to a screaming 100 MPH line drive coming right at them.

MLB responses

The Yankees released a statement about the girl's condition, but people are waiting for action.

What is a shame is that it has to take people getting seriously injured or even a death before actions are seriously considered. Every year in baseball parks across the country people get hurt by line drives or broken bats in areas without netting. No one else should have to get hurt and Major League Baseball should extend those nets further down each line to prevent these things from happening.
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