The netting almost extended far enough, but almost doesn’t matter when a child’s safety is at stake. That’s the line of thinking from Indians star shortstop Francisco Lindor, whose foul ball reportedly hit a 3-year-old child in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game.
Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor was at bat in the sixth inning when he hit a foul ball into the crowd just past the edge of the netting by first base, which then struck the boy. https://t.co/j6FsbT7idx
— News 5 Cleveland (@WEWS) July 22, 2019
One distraught superstar
When Lindor returned to the dugout, he immediately sought an update on the boy, who reportedly went to the hospital for evaluation but is doing OK.
Lindor was very upset in the immediate aftermath of the incident. That’s something we’ve seen from other players involved in such accidents. There’s nothing a player can do about a where a foul ball goes, and it’s very difficult — impossible, really — to ask fans to pay attention 100 percent of the time, especially children.
Francisco Lindor wasn’t thinking about his home run that helped the Cleveland Indians beat Kansas City Royals 5-4 on Sunday. Instead, the All-Star shortstop was only concerned about the young child who was struck by a line drive he hit. https://t.co/r8gWNqrJNB pic.twitter.com/91dwpuUQpG
— ABC 7 News – WJLA (@ABC7News) July 22, 2019
A call for action
After the game, Lindor provided the update he’d received on the child. He also led a passionate cry for change to extend protective netting all the way down both foul lines.
A couple of teams already have announced plans to do just that. But Lindor thinks it should be a mandatory update.
“I encourage every MLB team to put the nets all the way down,” Lindor told reporters, according to ESPN.com. “I know it’s all about the fans’ experience of interacting with players and I completely get that. You want to have that interaction with the fans, getting autographs and stuff, but at the end of the day, we want to make sure everybody comes out of this game healthy, and we got to do something about it.”
Francisco Lindor distraught after hitting 3-year-old boy with foul ball 🙏 https://t.co/Y56zfiWIWo
— Baseball Bros (@BaseballBros) July 22, 2019
