American Baseball fan dies catching ball

Reg'stoy · 08-07-2011 2:34pm #1

An American baseball fan fell to his death trying to catch a ball.

Warning video link contains him falling

fedor.2. · 08-07-2011 2:39pm

I feel bad for the person who tried to catch him

sunflower27 · 08-07-2011 2:40pm

How tragic. Looks like a young guy, too. How quick a life can be snuffed out.

RIP.

jack presley · 08-07-2011 2:42pm

He was there with his young kid as well.

http://sports.espn.go.com/dallas/mlb/news/story?id=6747510

Very sad story.

Dangerous Man · 08-07-2011 2:46pm

It's not the first time something like this has happened at a baseball game. Some guys just love balls.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 08-07-2011 2:47pm

Tragic for the young boy to witness his Dad's death in such a manner.

Kevin Kilbane · 08-07-2011 2:48pm

Really sad. That was his kid beside him.

Something similar happened at the same ground a year ago, although luckily didn't end with a fatality.

On a similar note, a part of the stand broke at the St Pat's game last night and a fan fell through the hole a good 10-15 feet. Luckily he seemed grand after a quick check-up in the ambulance.

Oink · 08-07-2011 2:48pm

Thanks for the warning. No offence OP, but I have no interest in watching a kid die.

If I was the dad I would not be impressed with the ABC news scumbags.

charlemont · 08-07-2011 2:52pm

Very sad indeed..

DEFTLEFTHAND · 08-07-2011 2:52pm

Oink wrote: »

Thanks for the warning. No offence OP, but I have no interest in watching a kid die.

If I was the dad I would not be impressed with the ABC news scumbags.

It was the father who died.

ceadaoin. · 08-07-2011 2:53pm

Oink wrote: »

Thanks for the warning. No offence OP, but I have no interest in watching a kid die.

If I was the dad I would not be impressed with the ABC news scumbags.

The Dad is the one who died. He was with his kid at the time.

Poor kid having to see that

RichieC · 08-07-2011 2:57pm

I dare not watch it... sad though all the same.

ShooterSF · 08-07-2011 3:04pm

Video seems to be pulled. Footage from the game is on youtube. Sad thing to see happen. The safety features seem non existant.

Sparks43 · 08-07-2011 3:07pm

ShooterSF wrote: »

Video seems to be pulled. Footage from the game is on youtube. Sad thing to see happen. The safety features seem non existant.

Yep its up on youtube here

sunflower27 · 08-07-2011 3:09pm

He was taken from the stands on a stretcher, conscious. Asked the emergency crew to find his son as he was on his own. He died an hour later apparently.

That poor little boy seeing that happen in front of his eyes. It's heartbreaking.

InTheTrees · 08-07-2011 3:10pm

Terrible.

A bit of background. Its a really traditional thing for american kids to go to the ballgame with their dads and catching a ball at a baseball game is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. People bring their baseball catching gloves to baseball games for their entire lifetimes in the hope of catching one and never do. So its a huge deal. And to catch one and give it to your son would be something the kid would remember for his whole life.

So the dad was highly motivated. Really sad though.

Opelfruit · 08-07-2011 3:14pm

ShooterSF wrote: »

Video seems to be pulled. Footage from the game is on youtube. Sad thing to see happen. The safety features seem non existant.

It was the mans own fault in fairness.

Son Of A Vidic · 08-07-2011 3:14pm

Not graphic, but it is still unnecessary for ABC to be showing it. Those safety railings appear to be much to low and I'm guessing the area he fell down into had no anti-fall protection of any kind. Awful to see such a tragedy occur in such circumstances.

Opelfruit · 08-07-2011 3:20pm

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Not graphic, but it is still unnecessary for ABC to be showing it. Those safety railings appear to be much to low and I'm guessing the area he fell down into had no anti-fall protection of any kind. Awful to see such a tragedy occur in such circumstances.

I can imagine baseball stadiums having to put up some kind of netting soon. I've been to a few baseball games in the US and the risks some guys take to catch foul balls is ridiculous.

ShooterSF · 08-07-2011 3:30pm

Opelfruit wrote: »

It was the mans own fault in fairness.

To a point of course. You won't see me arguing against personal responsibility

With that said though, the team have to provide a safe environment for their paying fans who are buying a service and as this is a common part of the game and not one the teams seem to have any desire to stop they should try their best to keep the fans safe while allowing them to still be immersed.

mikemac · 08-07-2011 3:32pm

Very sad and especially for his son to watch it

Had a look at youtube to see the full video, Christ there are some cúntish comments on there, realy low :mad:

Some stadiums have netting like this in New York which caught a person
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaFGi6kDlQo&feature=related

CardBordWindow · 08-07-2011 3:38pm

I'm suprised they could show that on the news!:eek:

Minstrel27 · 08-07-2011 3:42pm

It's on Liveleak and I bet the commentators felt like right dickheads afterwards.

InTheTrees · 08-07-2011 3:48pm

Another thing about baseball that people probably dont know.

The season runs from the beginning of April to around the start of October and in that time every team plays around 170 games.

SO its not like football with a match or maybe two every week. Baseball teams play every day during the season with one day a week off (which is usually a travel day, its a big country).

There'll be around 80 home games in a season, and even a team that sucks will pull in a minimum of 10,000 (i may be off a little), so given that there's 30 teams in the Major League, thats a minimum of three hundred thousand people attending live major league baseball every night.

And i've never heard of a fan falling out of the stands before so I dont expect added safety measures anytime soon. Even given the litigious nature of americans.

prinz · 08-07-2011 3:54pm

Corvus Maximus wrote: »

Those safety railings appear to be much to low and I'm guessing the area he fell down into had no anti-fall protection of any kind. Awful to see such a tragedy occur in such circumstances.

Tragic accident, but in fairness it's up to the spectators to be aware of it too. You'd think a fire fighter woud have known better to lunge towards the railings tbh. How high do the safety railings have to be before they are 'safe'? A similar situation could easily happen in Croke Park for example where I've seen people (even kids with their parents knowledge) hanging right out over the railings to wave a flag. Increase the railing height and the fans behind will have an obstructed view/will just climb onto the railings. Sad but true.

It's something they should try to stamp out as it's a regular enough occurence. This kid got lucky..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Or7aM37qnw

magma69 · 08-07-2011 4:38pm

This warrants a ban on the sport completely.

I may not be the biggest fan of baseball

American Baseball fan dies catching ball

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