Blue Jays' feelings mixed on additional netting in stadiums

When the Blue Jays visited Houston earlier this season, John Gibbons tried to talk his wife and kids out of sitting in seats right above the dugout. The Toronto manager was concerned for their safety.

In his decades in baseball, Gibbons has seen too many balls and bats fly into the stands. There have been enough incidents this season to prompt Major League Baseball to consider adding more netting down the first- and third-base lines to protect fans.

Members of the Blue Jays have varying opinions on adding more netting to stadiums, like the NHL did in 2002 after 13-year-old Brittanie Cecil was killed by a deflected puck at a Blue Jackets game in Columbus.

Veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins, who has seen countless incidents in his 20-year major-league career, believes fans should send a message that they want more protection.

"I think fans should stop buying those seats until MLB does something," Hawkins said last week. "That'll give (baseball officials) some kind of sense of urgency. I don't think the fans should come to the game and get hurt or have to get rushed to the hospital."

Commissioner Rob Manfred has said the league is looking at the designs of all 30 ballparks and studying data on foul balls and broken bats to make a determination. Changes could be coming as soon as April.

Incidents piling up

Boston Red Sox fan Tonya Carpenter, 44, was hit in the face with a piece of former Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie's bat in June and was taken to the hospital.

Within the past two weeks, a fan at Chicago's Wrigley Field was carried off on a stretcher and taken to the hospital when she was hit by a foul ball and a fan in Detroit was injured by a foul ball behind the Tigers' dugout.

On Monday night, the bat slipped out of New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann's hands and struck a female fan in the elbow.

A fan was recently struck in the face by a ball at the Blue Jays' minor-league stadium in Dunedin, Fla. Pitcher Chris Smith could hear it from the bullpen beyond the right-field fence.

"It's scary stuff. Every time a ball goes up in the stands you almost cringe," Smith said by phone Tuesday. "I know everybody wants to catch a foul ball, too, but at the same time nobody wants to catch a foul ball in the face and maybe have the potential to have a lifelong injury."

In July, a class-action lawsuit was filed in San Francisco court on behalf of an Athletics fan and other season-ticket holders calling for Manfred to extend protective netting down the base lines.

Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro said fans should avoid sitting in those areas if they're worried about getting hit. He's not in favour of more netting.

"People want to experience, they want to be close, they want to be part of it," Navarro said. "It's been like that forever. I think when people buy tickets to sit in that area, I think they're aware of the situation and they're aware of the dangers that come with it."

Despite arguments against it, Gibbons hopes more netting is put up before it's too late.

"I've heard the complaint that it obstructs the view," Gibbons said. "Personally I'd rather see them put something up. Not like plexiglass or anything — some kind of netting. ... All it takes is that one time."