Put the Nets Up at Ballgames!

22nd of September 2017

I love going to baseball games. I love sitting outside with the light breeze blowing, smelling the fresh food, drinking a cold one while my favorite sport is going on. I could do without the antics that go on in between innings, but for the most part, I love baseball. I don't, however, like it when someone gets hurt at the games whether it's a player or a fan. Recently, a toddler was hit in the mouth by a foul ball at a Yankee game. It was so scary, even the Yankee that hit the ball was almost in tears (no, I'm not a Yankee fan). The game was stopped, and the toddler was taken to the hospital. I don't know about the condition on the kid, but the father has told the media that his daughter will be ok. I'm glad to hear that, but I'm more surprised with what people have been saying about the issue.

The issue of netting going up around the field was brought up with a lot of people getting upset about that. Some people say that it distracts their view. I call bullshit. The nets have holes in them. You can see through the holes. Some people even went as far as to say people should put down their phones and pay attention. While I'm all about everyone needing to pay attention, this 2 year-old girl did not have a phone in her hand. These balls are going over 100 miles per hour, and nobody in the stands has the reaction time to stop the ball. I know I did an article earlier about paying attention, but that article does not apply to this situation.

Some people even went as far as to say that the parents should not be sitting that close with their kid. They were sitting along the third base line in the front section. Again, I call bullshit. Let's get one thing straight. Kids that are loud and out of control piss me off to no end. However, I'm always going to be around them if I go out in public. And that means ballgames. There's no reason why kids of all ages can't sit anywhere in the stadium. There are a lot of other dangers anywhere in the ballpark that are out of the control of the stadium. Putting up netting to protect fans is something the team and stadium CAN control. It sickens me people are coming up with child-like excuses to not put up netting further down the field. Yes, people should pay attention. However, even if someone is paying attention and a ball is coming at him or her at over 100 miles per hour, they won't have time to react. That toddler got hit with a line drive foul ball. Instead of wanting to prevent this from happening again, people would rather make claims that the netting blocks their view or prevents fans from getting foul balls. If people are worried about getting a foul ball, maybe we should go back to the Dead Ball Era. That would speed up the game by far, which is what the MLB wants to do. Why, I don't know. Most MLB games take about 3 hours at the most. Football takes about 4 hours, has a "running" clock and is the only game where 2 minutes turns into 10 minutes. There's nothing wrong with the pace of a baseball game. Plus, what about your TV ad revenues?!