Detroit Tigers’ Ron Gardenhire: Extend protective netting to foul poles

You don’t need to caution Ron Gardenhire about the dangers of line drives flying into the stands. Gardenhire coached third base for the Minnesota Twins for more than a decade. The majority of those games came inside the now-razed Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, where fans were afforded one of the most up close-and-personal looks in the Major Leagues — without protective netting. … Read More

Iowa Cubs plan to extend netting for 2020 season

When the Iowa Cubs added precautionary netting to extend to each end of both Principal Park dugouts back in 2016, team president/general manager Sam Bernabe did it with the intention of one day extending the nets even farther. Bernabe, someday, wanted to extend the nets all the way down to both foul poles, protecting even more fans from balls and … Read More

MLB Players: We Want Extended Netting

An incident in which a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Houston’s Minute Maid Park is prompting conversation about netting at ballparks, with many players calling for further protection for fans.  During Wednesday’s game at Minute Maid Park between the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros, Cubs center fielderAlbert Almora Jr. hit a foul ball down the left-field line that struck a young girl sitting in the stands. The extended … Read More

Texas Rangers weigh in on possibly extending netting in ballparks after scary incident

Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward thinks it’s time for MLB stadiums to have expanded protective netting down the foul lines. So do Rangers players. All are in agreement with the topic returning to the forefront of baseball following Wednesday night’s Cubs-Astros game in Houston when a young girl was struck by a foul ball. “Somebody is going to get killed, honestly, the way balls are … Read More

Here’s a look at the 30 MLB ballparks and their safety netting for dangerous foul balls

Catching a foul ball can invigorate a fan’s baseball game experience. That ballpark openness can also end awry and grim as it did Wednesday night when a foul ball struck a young girl in the stands off the bat of Chicago Cubs outfielder Albert Almora. Almora’s emotional reaction illuminated an ongoing debate between the Major League Baseball and its players who believe fan experience … Read More

Another Child Is Hit by a Foul Ball, and the Batter Is Devastated

A broad outcry after a small girl was hit in the head by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium two years ago spurred Major League Baseball to do something it had repeatedly resisted: It compelled all 30 teams to extend protective netting to the far end of dugouts. The question, raised again after another episode on Wednesday night in which … Read More

Netting under scrutiny again, Red Sox vs Yanks

Protective netting at ballparks is again under scrutiny after a young girl was struck in Houston by a foul ball. Albert Almora Jr. of the Chicago Cubs hit a line drive into the stands down the third base line and almost immediately put his hands on his head in horror. The girl who got hit was picked up by a man who … Read More

MLB parks need full protective netting before it’s too late

Look at her face. Look at the little girl, orange bow in her hair, fear in her eyes, pain and suffering evident. Look at her. Really look at her, no matter how difficult it may be. And then look at the people surrounding her, the adults with hands covering their mouths, because a little girl — a little girl with … Read More

Harambe the gorilla shot dead when child falls into enclosure

Tuesday marks three years since Harambe, a western lowland gorilla, was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo. The 400-pound gorilla was killed by Cincinnati Zoo staff on May 28, 2016, after a 3-year-old child fell into the gorilla enclosure. The boy breached the barrier, zoo director Thane Maynard said, prompting serious changes at Cincinnati’s world-renowned zoo. Cincinnati’s Gorilla World … Read More

Fish netting connects Ojibwe with ancient roots

The spring netting of walleye by Native Americans seems to many as outdated, but a closer look reveals a practice steeped in family and ancestral importance that still links a community to its past. Conditions are not great, but fathers and sons are off on a choppy Lake Mille Lacs. It’s the time of evening when nets are set for … Read More