Blue Jays to replace and extend protective netting at Rogers Centre

TORONTO The Toronto Blue Jays became the latest Major League Baseball team to announce plans to extend the protective netting at their home stadium Monday.

New netting will be extended to the outfield end of each dugout at Rogers Centre. Existing netting behind home plate will be replaced and increased in height by about three metres, the team said in a statement.

“It’s something we’ve been working on through the offseason,” said Andrew Miller, the Blue Jays’ executive vicepresident of business operations. “It’ll be installed in midto-late February in time for Opening Day on March 29. It’s something we’re always thinking about - the safety of our fans.

“We thought this was a good opportunity for us to extend the netting.”

Several big-league clubs announced plans to expand protective netting last season after a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium. The 105-m.p.h. line drive hit her in the face in less than a second.

The Blue Jays said the existing netting at Rogers Centre meets MLB’s recommended guidelines, but the newly installed netting will exceed those standards.

“We’re always cognizant of things that are going on around the league as well as obviously things that happen here,” Miller said. “Any time there’s an incident anywhere in the league, it’s something we take notice of.

“We want our fans to be safe and we thought this was the best thing to do at this point.”