# Pitting MLB - Put up some fucking nets to protect the fans, already. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 23, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629 "2015-08-23T19:13:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/21 "2015-08-24T01:20:44Z")
I’ve been to plenty of ball games. I love them. A net behind home plate is more than necessary. Nets on the sides? Ridiculous. It’s common sense. If you’re sitting in a splash zone at Sea World, water will be near you. If you sit five rows from a dugout, you’re in foul ball zone! (Welcome!) Coming back with food or from the bathroom, you have to wait in between batters before returning to those seats. I wouldnt bring a kid to a game if he was too young to pay attention to the game sitting in those seats. That’s some mor common sense. Making a kid wear a helmet for the whole game is silly. Incidentally, I’ve also been to concerts in those same baseball stadiums. Once I was slapped, another time beer spilled on me, and another time a drunk falling and landing on me. None of these were my interactions. (Got slapped when the guy in front of me ducked from whoever was hitting him.) Nets won’t help that. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/22 "2015-08-24T02:23:26Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > The DH totally obviates the point of baseball. There’s a point to baseball?? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/23 "2015-08-24T05:14:17Z")
Of course. The game is a gift from Heaven, and is meant to instill proper virtues, such as sportsmanship, fair play, and EARNING the right to go to bat by playing a defensive role on your team (the apex of athletic achievement is getting the opportunity to attempt to hit a fast-moving spheroid with a stick. Not even succeeding at it, that’s just welcome gravy; being allowed to TRY). And of course, taking your own turn, when it comes up, or leaving the game. These are the things that make baseball a sacred rite, rather than a mere exercise in commerce, and make us better human beings. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/24 "2015-08-24T06:28:58Z")
Maybe bring a glove to the game if you’re sitting there? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/25 "2015-08-24T06:47:50Z")
> [@SCAdian](#): > > There’s a point to baseball?? Hot dogs and beer? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/26 "2015-08-24T12:06:08Z")
Watching games behind netting is not enjoyable for me and many fans, even if you don’t have hopes of snagging a foul ball. Extending netting all the way past the dugouts will result in fewer people coming out to games. If baseball wants to decrease fan interest and attendance, this is a good way to do it. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/27 "2015-08-24T12:35:47Z")
The seats behind the nets are always filled. There will be some carping about nets further down the line but I think it’s time. Not everyone who goes to a game watches each and every pitch. Some are minding children, some are getting money out for concessions, some are glancing at the scoreboard, some are looking at ther phone, and some are just there to accompany someone who wants to watch a game. If a ball or bat come at you in a moment of inattention, it could be fatal. I say extend the nets as far as first and third bases, lower deck only. Sure, it will detract from someone’s view. Sure, there will be less opportunities to catch a ball. But the NHL increased their net coverage a few years back and it didn’t hurt them. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/28 "2015-08-24T15:14:56Z")
Nets are coming. People will bitch and raise holy hell about it for five minutes, and then it will be accepted and forgotten. Modern ballparks have more seats closer to the field than ever before. Besides the risk from baseballs, there is ever-increasing risk from _bats_. Modern pitchers throw hard, and modern batters swing hard. More bats explode upon contact, sending shards pinwheeling into the stands, and batters lose control of their bats, sending intact bats pinwheeling into the stands. There’s more involved than my personal risk of injury. My enjoyment of the game is decreased, pretty dramatically, by watching _other people_ get their skull crushed and be carried off on a medical cart. Nets are coming. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/29 "2015-08-24T15:20:17Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Hot dogs and beer? Remember, no footlongs! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/30 "2015-08-24T16:28:13Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Of course. The game is a gift from Heaven, and is meant to instill proper virtues, such as sportsmanship, fair play, and EARNING the right to go to bat by playing a defensive role on your team (the apex of athletic achievement is getting the opportunity to attempt to hit a fast-moving spheroid with a stick. Not even succeeding at it, that’s just welcome gravy; being allowed to TRY). And of course, taking your own turn, when it comes up, or leaving the game. > > These are the things that make baseball a sacred rite, rather than a mere exercise in commerce, and make us better human beings. Dude, take it to another thread, would you? ---
**Author:** ![howye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9adbd/32.png) [@howye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/howye)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/31 "2015-08-24T16:46:40Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Honestly? I think it’s only a matter of time before someone’s seriously injured, or even killed. That happened already in the [NHL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brittanie_Cecil), and now they have protective netting up at each end of the rink, where people are most likely to get hit. > > Is it honestly worth the risk? I was at that game. I have no wish to be able to make such a claim again. I have a son that I take to hockey practice or youth games up to three times a week. There is netting around the entirety of those rinks. You will see this happen in NHL rinks eventually. Netting further out at baseball games is going to happen. It would make sense to happen before some is killed or has permanent brain injury, but it probably won’t. No, it does not interfere with your view of the game to any significant degree. If the only reason you attend games is to get a little interaction over the top of the dugout, well I don’t know what to tell you. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/32 "2015-08-24T16:47:53Z")
> [@leftfield6](#): > > I used to have season tickets for an MLB team, I did so for about 10 years. One year I splurged and bought seats just past the end of the third base dugout, about 5 rows back. Prime spot for either a right handed batter to pull the ball with some real power behind it, and also for lefties to swing late and foul one off. The line drives off the lefties were almost worse, because they were always hit off the end of the bat, and had a mean slice to them. I was never hit, but a guy in the row in front of me took a nasty shot. He WAS alert, he WAS watching, and he even attempted to get his hands up and catch the ball. He misjudged it, it missed his hands, and hit him in the upper chest, almost right on the collarbone. He was okay, but shaken. What he also had was a clear impression of the seams of the baseball branded into his skin. He was also shaken because the seat next to him was filled with a 10 year old girl. If the ball had been a foot or so to the right, she would have been the recipient of the blow. > > I hesitate to post this video, because the knuckleheads in the stands are exactly the guys you are all saying you have no sympathy for, They are not paying attention, and are oblivious for the ball heading right for them. The guy on the right, and I don’t think I’m exagerating here, missed being killed by less than 6 inches. A ball hit that hard, full on in the face would be potentially deadly. But in this video, watch the reactions of the **professional baseball players** sitting in the dugout. It’s a little hard to judge distances, but look how close the ball is to the stands before even [THEY react](http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v32658725/baltb-unaware-fan-nearly-gets-hit-by-foul-ball). I had friend who had season tix in pretty much the same area as you did. They couldn’t attend all the games so another friend would buy about a third of their tix every year. And a nearly identical scenario happened to him as happened to you. Only he was hit in the **face** and the kid near him was a 7-ish year old boy. Luckily, my friend was only badly bruised – his glasses must have taken the brunt of the force as they were seriously mangled. It could have been much worse. What irked him the most was that all the people insisted he give the ball to the kid. Point is, he said he didn’t even have time to get his hands in front of his face and he _was_ watching. I went with him a few times, and I was terrified at least once every game. And one time we saw Chuck Knoblack (sp?) get hit in the dugout. He _wasn’t_ paying attention! ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/33 "2015-08-24T16:53:24Z")
> [@howye](#): > > There is netting around the entirety of those rinks. You will see this happen in NHL rinks eventually. I had season tix to the Kings when they introduced the nets. And I remember Brittanie Cecil – partly because my mom grew up in Columbus and I have a ton of relatives there. Everybody bitched and moaned about how horrible the nets were. Swore they’d ruin the game. Ooooh, which is more horrible? The white nets? Or the black nets? Well, I’d say by maybe the second game of the season (maybe halfway through the first game). You didn’t even notice them. Seriously. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/34 "2015-08-24T17:02:30Z")
My seats at Nats park are behind first base, but pretty far up so that when a ball comes screaming in, it’s slowed down a bit. I see people sitting with babies pretty close to the dugout and it makes me cringe. I also see people down there fiddling with their phones or otherwise not watching the game. One time an absolute rocket came in and hit the seat next to a woman texting, if it had hit her, she’d have been in the hospital. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/35 "2015-08-24T17:19:15Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Watching games behind netting is not enjoyable for me and many fans, even if you don’t have hopes of snagging a foul ball. Extending netting all the way past the dugouts will result in fewer people coming out to games. > > If baseball wants to decrease fan interest and attendance, this is a good way to do it. The Astros have discovered the way to increase fan interest & attendance. Start winning games. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/36 "2015-08-24T17:23:14Z")
The net is not as obstructive to your view when you’re right behind home plate. If you’re out closer to the bases, I think it would be quite a bit more obstructive just based on your viewing angle. As a fan, I wouldn’t want a net in front of me if I were sitting behind the dugout. On the other hand, players have twice requested increased netting in collective bargaining with owners. They may want it as much for their own protection from fans, but regardless they are in favor of more protection. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/37 "2015-08-24T17:56:17Z")
Turn the nets into Faraday cages, and we’d all be happy. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/38 "2015-08-24T18:04:39Z")
The 1970s called. They want your argument against safety equipment like batting helmets back. ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/39 "2015-08-24T19:20:27Z")
I have season tickets behind the net, and even there the net isn’t a guarantee of protection. Twice this season I’ve seen someone brained with a pop foul (one paying attention, one not so much). Neither was seriously injured, but both of those balls were MOVING. Plus then there’s the always interesting possibility of getting hit on the BACK of the head because a pop foul ricocheted off the mid-level and is now flying at you from behind. Even if you’re paying attention and watching the ball, it’s damn hard to track even a moderately paced fly ball doing that - let alone a screamer. The danger of getting hit by a ball is part of going to a baseball game. It’s not a big danger, statistically, but it’s always been part of going to a game. It’s a part of the game some fans actively hope for (less the “hitting” and more the “catching”, but it’s hard to decide beforehand which it’s gonna be). The area behind home plate needs screens - frankly, a hard foul that goes behind home has a much higher chance of hurting someone than any foul to the baselines. The distance is shorter, the reaction time is less, and there are a whole lot more of them. Screening in the entire baseline would bother folks who don’t like to watch through a screen (and there are a number of those), and it would significantly reduce the ability of fans to interact with players during a game. There are always small herds of children near the dugouts between innings waiting for a chance to ask for an autograph or catch the inning’s game ball from a player. The ushers (at least at Chase Field) make sure they stay in their seats until the inning is over for safety, but netting would essentially eliminate that avenue for fan interaction - which is a great one. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629/40 "2015-08-24T19:37:06Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Honestly? I think it’s only a matter of time before someone’s seriously injured, or even killed. That happened already in the [NHL](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Brittanie_Cecil), and now they have protective netting up at each end of the rink, where people are most likely to get hit. > > Is it honestly worth the risk? It was a sad day when hockey became more concerned about safety than baseball. * * * I always plant my date just off first-base, towards the plate … while saving her life you can … umm … welll … you get the idea … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pitting-mlb-put-up-some-fucking-nets-to-protect-the-fans-already/728629.md?page=3)