Horrible, you'd think they'd at least put a net over the gap or something....really it was the rail that was the problem...it's too low to hold a taller person back.
I think players tossing balls into the stands in the outfield should be banned now. Why should any player have to live with any guilt over someone not being able to maintain their balance and catch a lightly tossed ball? I wouldn't do it...because fans are not ball players as evidence here. Obviously, the ball coming off the bat is an entirely different thing that carries an inherent risk that is a risk any fan takes going to a ball game. Try to help a fan out tossing him a ball...and he falls and dies. Unbelievable. It's still just a ball. My Dad caught a Johnny Bench foul ball way high behind home plate in the Astrodome when I was a kid while I was conveniently out getting nachos. After the initial coolness factor, that ball was still just a ball with a stupid baseball stamp on it. I think I ended up just using it like any other ball. I guess it would be different if signed. I shudder at the thought of my Dad falling from the purple seats section in the Astrodome just to catch a foul ball for me...but the old man caught it and got his applause. Lucky him I guess.
Overreact much? How many times has this exact scenario played out where nothing bad happened? No need to outlaw something routine and innocuous because something less likely than lightning striking twice on a spot the size of a flea's ass (on a leap year) happened. Absolutely horrible and tragic, but I hope MLB doesn't overreact to this and start building stadiums where fans are 10ft away from any railing, and players aren't allowed to interact with fans for fear of liability or disaster.
I agree with this. It was a freak incident that can probably be prevented with some stadium modifications.
Fix the problems that allow fans to fall and I'm fine with it. But, twice in a year two Texas fans have taken tumbles. The fans are obviously not competent enough to keep themselves from falling out of the stands. Maybe they should just ban it at the Ballpark in Arlington? I don't know the stats for fans falling out of stands besides these two. Surely, this isn't the only death in a scenario like this? The only other incident I know about is the Lakers game one.
Fix the fans that allow falls to happen. None of the accidents that I've seen have anything to do with poor stadium design, and everything to do with people being too careless or wreckless. The only other fatality fall this year happened at a Rockies game, when a guy sliding down a staircase railing, fell 30 something feet and hit his head.
He apparently woke up after the fall, asked about his son and then went into cardiac arrest. Just awful.
I actually think there might be something to fix here at this particular ballpark. This is the 3rd time this has happened at this very park...the 2nd time in the last year. I'm totally with you...I don't want them to over-react; but they need to address the parks where this is a repeated event....and as far as I can recall, this is the only park where it's happened multiple times.
Very sad...but does anyone here think most of the fault lies with the guy??? He stretched out over someone else who was leaning over the fence himself with a glove and took the ball away from him...then fell. If he didn't die I'm sure most people would've thought that was a dick move. If the fence was higher it would probably help prevent people from falling over...they'll probably raise it pretty soon...but the dude took it too far for a freakin baseball.
The last line in that sentence reminds me of the parents who take their kids to chuck e cheese and then fight over the free tickets the guy in the mouse costume throws out. :grin:
In this ballpark, covering the gap (scoreboard operators alley) would have saved this man's life, but in other ballparks, he would have fell on the warning track and died. I don't know what more you can do than raise the railing.
This horrifies me. I took my oldest to his first ballgame last year, and we sat in the front row out in LF of Turner Field. There is a gap like this between the stands and the OF wall that you could certainly fall into. The drop isn't as far at Turner though. The easy solution is to make the fence higher, but it is only so low as to allow you to sit and watch the game without it obstructing your view, and some people will climb on the railing (the ushers at Turner tell teenagers to get of the railing every time I go).
It is his fault, and obviously your life isn't worth a ball, but I'm sure he didn't think for a second that he might fall and he was probably trying to catch it for his son.
I'm with you. Unfortunate accident for the man who died, but I think he took it too far by stretching over the rail. The rails do look low, as they look like they don't even go up to his waist, but if they're up to stadium regulations, fault lies more to the fan who went over them. Even if not up to regulations, the fan was more to blame for going over the rail just for a baseball. If I were Josh Hamilton, I'd feel the same. He isn't responsible in any way for that accident. Call me insensitive, but it's not like Hamilton made him go over that rail. I haven't seen much of that stadium, but are the rails like that at all other spots, not just where the scoreboard is? If so, there's not much point to say there shouldn't have been that space between the rail and scoreboard. If the rails were like that elsewhere, he would've fallen onto the field just the same. Fans at baseball games seem to get that dog instinct that when they see a ball come their way, they think "ooh! A ball that I must have!" and they will do ridiculous things for them. At least that guy Beaux, infamous at the Astros game, got the right idea to GTFO the way. He's still alive.
I think this is a problem with the code. According to the IBC which most US building codes are based off of guardrails are 42" high min but there is an exception for bleachers where they can be 26" high min. and looking at the video it appears that the rail there is probably between 26" and 30" high. If there are more incidents like this should probably look at reforming the code to address this.
