Will a Fan Be Killed at a Baseball Game?

Baby daughter Sienna followed her first object the other day - Danielle's Blackberry. No, Danielle wasn't showing Sienna something on the Blackberry - she was merely holding it in her hand, moved it, and Sienna's eyes followed.

A monumental first step for our newborn.

Then Danielle posted the information on Facebook. She then texted me, which I received on my iPhone. Which had ESPN's ScoreCenter app on it, where I could be updated to all sports scores. That is, if my twitter feed wasn't going crazy with sporting event information. Sport information like Luis Salazar being hit in the face with a line drive.

Salazar is a Braves minor league manager who, while standing in the dugout during a spring training game, was hit in the face by a foul ball line drive. After all was said and done Salazar lost an eye.

I've been at baseball games and seen people hit with line drives while paying attention - which Salazar certainly was. I grew up in Boston where Jim Rice was lauded throughout his career for jumping into the stands to help a bleeding child who had been hit with a line drive. Which taught us Boston fans to pay attention (or maybe get hit and meet your hero).

I have also been at baseball games where people walking up the steps with a back turned get hit with a line drive. Or a deflection off the hands of one fans catches another fan in face and causes injury. Or thousands of other ways a tiny object flying destined to become a souvenier wreaks havoc. Anyone who has ever gone to a game has winced on a particularly violent foul.

There is a reason why there are warnings throughout ballparks about objects leaving the field.

In the last few years, with more-and-more people getting on mobile devices DURING the game the danger seems like it increased exponentially. Especially given, well let me just say that sometimes baseball isn't exactly the most excited game. We distract ourselves with texts, email, facebook, twitter - and I readily admit I have done all of those during a baseball game.

It really makes me wonder if it is only a matter of time before someone gets killed by a foul ball. I know I'm not the first to wonder, nor the last. Merely that a foul ball line drive has become a heck of a lot more personal since Salazar was paying attention and I have been guilty of not paying attention - and there isn't a lot of difference in the 250 feet between a dugout and most rows in a stadium.

So as Sienna follows her eyes with the Blackberry, we're going to try to teach her to still pay attention to the world around here. Well, at least when we take her to a baseball game. Or at least while I'm watching a game this year.

And when I do bring her to her first baseball game we're sitting in the bleachers. Where it's safe.

Wayne