A young girl was taken out of Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on a stretcher on Wednesday after she was struck in the face by a foul ball.
The incident happened after New York Yankees third baseman Todd Frazier sent a screaming line-drive foul ball into the stands at 170 km/h, striking the girl who was sitting behind the third base dugout.
READ MORE: Toronto Blue Jays baseball fan suffers concussion after being hit by ball at Rogers Centre
Stadium officials rushed to attend to the bleeding girl, while distressed players on both the Yankees and Minnesota Twins struggled to watch from the field.
Frazier, who has two young children of his own, tweeted his thoughts following the game.
Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius also posted his concern for the little girl.
The girl was taken to a New York hospital where her father and grandfather briefly spoke to reporters. The father said it was “too early to tell” if his daughter would need surgery.
The family’s name and the condition of the girl were not revealed.
The New York Times reported that a stadium medical official said the girl was struck in the nose and right eye by the ball.
Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said he received an update on the girl following the game.
“We got a report that she’s OK,” he said.
WATCH: Minnesota Twins player calls for more nets in MLB stadiums
The incident has reignited calls for Major League Baseball to improve fan safety in its stadiums.
Twins second baseman Brian Dozier called for all big league stadiums to have protective netting down the foul line.
“I don’t care about the damn view of a fan or what. It’s all about safety,” Dozier told reporters in the clubhouse. “I still have a knot in my stomach.”
“I think the netting should be up,” Frazier added after the game. “I think every stadium should have it. But we’re not at that point yet. Hopefully, they’ll take a look at all this and figure something out.”
Currently only about a third of MLB clubs have netting that stretches down the baselines.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred commented on fan safety following the incident on Wednesday, saying netting “remains an ongoing discussion.”
WATCH: MLB commissioner responds to calls for more fan safety
The league required all clubs to extend protective netting to the edge of the dugouts beginning in 2016 after a Boston Red Sox fan needed 30 stitches to close a gash left by a foul ball in a similar incident.
READ MORE: MLB to re-examine fan safety after serious injury at Fenway Park
“What we’ve done since then is encourage the individual clubs to engage in a localized process, look at their own stadiums — every stadium is different — and try to make a good decision about how far the netting should go in order to promote fan safety,” Manfred told reporters.
A common explanation for why some teams have not added more netting is due to concerns about sight lines from season-ticket holders.
The Yankees announced in August that they were “seriously exploring” extending the nets after a boy was left bloodied when he was hit in the head with a piece of a broken bat in May.
The protective netting at Rogers Centre where the Toronto Blue Jays play currently only meets the MLB’s minimum requirements of stretching to the edge of the dugouts.
Comments