Major League Baseball clearly needs to do more to protect fans from foul balls and broken bats that enter the stands. Bloomberg News estimates that each year 1,750 attendees are injured by batted balls at major league games.
Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander has been adovcating for better protection since a fan was hit in the head by a foul ball back in August. Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said an extension of protective netting at ballparks will be discussed at the offseason’s owners’ meetings.
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Manfred said the task won't be easy.
"If you go out and look at the ballparks, it becomes evident that a simple, uniform (policy) — for example, a net to the edge of the dugout — is not workable, given the variation in designs of the stadium," he said, via the Providence Journal. "It's going to have to be a little more complicated than that, if in fact we move ahead. I don't want to prejudge the outcome of (discussion with owners), but I do think a simple rule is probably difficult given the variations that exist in our stadiums."
As of now, the length of protective nets vary from stadium to stadium. About 53,000 foul balls are hit into the seats each season, according to foulballz.com
The worst incident this season happened when a woman at Fenway Park was badly injured when she was struck by a broken bat.