WEBVTT

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You've heard about people
being hit by errant baseballs,

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but you don't always
get the story behind it.

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I'm Robin Lundberg
here with Matt Martel.

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And Matt, you wrote about
one of those stories,

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and that was Jay
Lewis, who was out

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at the ballpark with his
family, in fact, trying

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to celebrate the memory of
his wife, who they had lost.

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And he suffered a
tragedy himself,

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losing sight in one of his eyes.

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Yeah, the Jays story is tragic.

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I mean, he was there with
his family for the first time

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going to Wrigley field.

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Their Cubs fans, his
kids were all grown.

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So they don't always
get together too much

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at this point, at least
not the four of them.

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So they were all at Wrigley
Field and he and his two sons

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raised a toast to his late wife,
their mother, and the turns

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after giving the toast and
foul ball, just hit him right

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in the eye.

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There was chaos.

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He was taken to the hospital and
he lost sight in his left eye.

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And he still has
pain to this day.

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And that's the start
of a story I wrote,

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which pretty much takes you
through the problems that

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happen at baseball games.

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And there are a number of
fans that are hit every year,

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roughly about 100 who get hurt
at baseball games, Major League

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games.

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That doesn't count any
of the minor league

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games, independently games,
amateur games or anything else.

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And these things are
generally not talked about.

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And fans generally
don't know how frequent

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it is that people get hit.

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And part of you
know, obviously he

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had the personal
issue with this,

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but he believes, like
others do, that it

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was a preventable thing.

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Oh, absolutely.

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That's the one thing that all
of these foul ball victims have

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been saying is, is they
could have been protected

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had individual
teams protected them

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by putting up
netting and netting

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that had been extended all
the way down the phalloides.

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A lot of times you see
netting at baseball games

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and they are just
behind home plate

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or they go to the
edges of the dugout

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or now some parks do extend
them to about the elbows

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midway down into the outfield.

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But only seven parks go all
the way down to the foul lines.

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This is something that
varies by stadium, by team,

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and it's something that baseball
is really only addressed

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when it's had to when
the public outcry has

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gotten to be too loud.

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There was an incident
a couple of years ago.

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Twenty, 17 at Yankee Stadium.

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There's actually only
a couple of weeks

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after Jay Lewis
got hit at Wrigley

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when a little girl got
hit with a foul ball

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by Todd Frazier hit.

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And this kind of gal was
a galvanizing moment.

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Somebody told me
for the story where

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people were so angry
about the whole thing

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and Major League
Baseball had to act.

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And that's when all 30
teams after that season

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extended netting.

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But they didn't do
it to a set distance

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as far as they went to the edges
of the dugout somewhat further.

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And it's still something
where they're only

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going as far as they need to.

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Generally speaking, only as
far as they need to make people

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think that they're
addressing the problem.

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It's very interesting.

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Well, hopefully there are
fewer problems and tragedies

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to address, but
obviously it is something

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that Major League Baseball
can take action about.

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Matt, appreciate
your time, as always.

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Thank you, Robin.

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