Rob Manfred: MLB will re-assess bat safety following Fenway incident

Major League Baseball’s first-year commissioner will be taking a look at fan safety after a woman was struck by a broken bat at Fenway Park on Friday night.

On Friday night at Fenway Park, Tanya Carpenter was hit by a broken bat during a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Oakland Athletics. Carpenter was taken from the field in a stretcher, and was listed in serious condition.

Fortunately, Carpenter’s condition was upgraded to fair, and with the tentatively good news arriving, first-year MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has taken it upon baseball to look again at fan safety.

More from Boston Red Sox

From ESPN:

"“When you have an issue like this, an incident like this, you have to go back and re-evaluate where you are on all of your safety issues and trust me, we will do that. Just like we are on a variety of issues right now at the beginning of my tenure,” Manfred said.“There’s a variety of issues that we’re going to take a fresh look at,” he said. “You have to react strongly to an incident like this, but I think the best word for it is that we’re going to re-evaluate where we are on the topic.”"

The issue is a simple one. Major League Baseball has already done quite a lot to limit the frequency of shattered bats; a re-evaluation in 2008 has subsequently cut instances of broken bats in half.

This is approximately where she was sitting:

[Credit: Reddit user /u/TheVanHasCandy]

If you take a look at that picture, you see the signs that say “Be Alert: Foul Balls and Bats Hurt (more than words, I would assume)”. The previous stance on injuries to fans is that the stadium isn’t responsible for any injuries to fans, that fans must be keenly alert during the game at all times.

From Boston Globe:

"“That is a longstanding legal principle that fans who chose to sit where balls or shards of bat could hit them have a duty to pay attention for their own safety,” said Steven A. Adelman, a sports attorney focusing on venue safety.Or, put another way, the gamble is simply the price of fandom."

So now, Carpenter will be all on her own. Not only does this legal principle obstruct the possibility of installing a mandatory safety net, but it frees the Boston Red Sox of any legal obligation to help Carpenter with any medical expenses.

Hopefully this is a large part of what Manfred hopes to address when he is re-assessing the issue of fan safety at ballparks. As a new commissioner, there is some trust that he will get it done, but for the time being fans like Carpenter are hung out to dry.

[H/T: ESPN, Reddit, Boston Globe]