Twice this season, and three times in the last two, fans have fallen from the stands varying distances, sustaining injuries of varying pain, from fractured skulls to death. While a lot should be said about the preventative measures that need to be taken by MLB and the ballparks, the fans have to be more aware of what's going on when they're watching their favorite players.
There's always an amount of risk inherent in jumping around in a stadium with 30,000 of your closest friends, all of whom are rowdy, drinking, and clamoring to catch a baseball or do something wacky that may get them 5 seconds of fame on ESPN in a highlight reel. Those like Keith Carmickle, who climbed on a small table near a ledge at the Home Run Derby last night to catch a homer hit by Prince Fielder and, unsurprisingly, slipped and almost fell, are putting their lives in great danger and can easily die from a fall caused by their own foolishness. Even those like Shannon Stone, the 39 year old firefighter who died last week reaching over the railing to catch a foul ball from Josh Hamilton at a Rangers game, who are just trying to get a nice piece of memorabilia for their young kids, take a chance when they splay their entire torso over the ledge of a 20-foot drop that ends in a concrete floor. As meaningful as that little sphere of happiness is, it's not worth losing your life or use of any extremities for. Nobody blames the people who fall, as well they shouldn't. But it's not disrespectful of the dead or injured to say that it's their responsibility to be cognizant of their own safety.
Now I know that all my readers (all 2 of you) will think of me as heartless for saying that. You have to understand: Shannon Stone's case was a purely freak accident. The combination of a small railing, Stone wearing flip-flops that provided little traction, and Hamilton not throwing the ball as well as he could into the stands caused a true tragedy. But this story last night, of Carmickle almost falling because he intentionally stood on an unsturdy, narrow table overlooking a similarly sized ledge, is mostly, if not entirely, stupid. It was completely avoidable, and thankfully he wasn't hurt or killed. There's a very fine line between fanaticism and stupidity, but once it's toed, there's very little chance of returning for another ballgame. And on the other side of that coin, there's a large amount of responsibility that has to be placed on Major League Baseball and the ballparks. If conditions aren't safe for drunken morons, or ever sober fathers with good intent, it's unsurprising that the risk of injury and death increases ten-fold. MLB knows this, has known it, and has the means to insure, as best as they can, that the risk is as minimal as possible. So why don't they do it? Some executives on MLB teams say that they can't anticipate the situations that fans will put themselves in to snag a ball, but after 100-some years of fans coming to see ballgames, it's confusing that they don't seem to fully understand the risks by now.
The solution? Take matters into your own hands. If you find yourself perched on a ledge at Safeco Field, Busch Stadium or Rogers Centre, clamoring for one of your favorite sluggers to slam one out of the park and into your outstretched glove, take a moment to figure out just how far your body can lean, if at all, before you're putting a baseball ahead of your own safety.
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