Players call for netting after girl hit by line drive
NEW YORK — A young girl at Yankee Stadium was injured by a 105 m.p.h. foul ball off the bat of Todd Frazier during Wednesday’s game against Minnesota, leading some players to call for protective netting to be extended. The Yankees won 11-3.
The Yankees said the girl was taken to a hospital for treatment, and New York manager Joe Girardi said he had been told by team security that she was OK.
The game was delayed for about four minutes while she was attended to and then carried from the seats in the bottom of the fifth inning.
A shaken Frazier crouched with his hands over his face. The Yankees third baseman then bowed his head, walked away from the plate, crouched again and rested his head on the end of his bat.
“I thought of my kids. I have two kids under 3 years old and I just hope she’s all right,” said Frazier, who flied out later in the at-bat.
“I know the dad or whoever it was that was with them was trying their hardest, but the ball’s coming at 120 miles an hour at them and the ball’s hooking. So it’s like if you’ve never seen a ball like that, which most people in the world haven’t, it’s very tough.”
Asked whether there should be more netting, Yankees rookie slugger Aaron Judge replied simply: “We need it.”
Twins players also were distressed. Second baseman Brian Dozier and the Yankees’ Matt Holliday had tears as they said prayers at second base.
“We’ve been trying to get these teams to put nets up,” Dozier said.
“No. 1, you don’t bring kids down there. And No. 2, every stadium needs to have nets. That’s it.
“I don’t care about the damn view of the fan or what. It’s all about safety. I still have a knot in my stomach.”
Speaking through a translator, Twins infielder Eduardo Escobar said: “I just saw blood coming out of this little girl.”
He said kids under a certain age perhaps should be prohibited from sitting in seats that don’t offer protection.
Major League Baseball issued recommendations for protecting netting or screens in December 2015, encouraging teams to have it in place between the ends of the dugouts closest to home plate.
“It remains an ongoing discussion in the industry,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said at Safeco Field, before Wednesday night’s contest between Seattle and Texas.
“We gave some guidelines two years ago, and what we have done since then is that we have encouraged the individual clubs to engage in a localized process, look at their own stadiums — every stadium is different — and to try to make a good decision about how far the netting should go in order to promote fan safety.”
The Mets extended netting beyond the outfield ends of the dugouts this season after the AllStar break.
The Yankees said in an August statement posted on the team’s website that they “are seriously exploring extending the netting prior to the 2018 season.”