As doctors and medical professionals, we demand that Major League Baseball be investigated and held accountable for a decades-long, and ongoing, failure to protect fans from dangerous foul balls and bats which have caused serious injuries and fatalities in MLB stadiums and its affiliated minor league ballparks.

As health care providers and public health advocates, we believe this constitutes a public health threat, and that more must be done immediately to eliminate these preventable injuries and deaths. MLB’s ongoing failure to protect fans from foreseeable risks of injury or death should have consequences. Whether through acts of regulation, government oversight, or legal proceedings, or all of the above, we believe it is time for decisive action to hold professional baseball to account.

We have dedicated our lives to protecting public health and safety. We understand the importance of relying on robust data and evidence to determine how best to heal patients. However, Major League Baseball has not made such data and evidence of risk available to the public or to the medical community. 

Major League Baseball refuses to acknowledge fault for its role in knowingly putting fans in harm’s way for decades. We believe it is reasonable to assume that MLB has known of this threat to fan safety for at least 50 years, ever since the 1970 death of 14-year-old Alan Fish from a foul ball injury suffered at Dodger Stadium. We believe MLB has been especially callous in failing to take decisive mandatory action following the 2018 death of 79-year-old Linda Goldbloom, whose death was caused by a foul ball injury also suffered at Dodger Stadium.

These failures to protect fans are profoundly damaging to the public trust. These are violent incidents and often require intensive care to address injuries in emergency rooms, urgent care clinics and emergency medical response units. These efforts drain resources and extend delays in caring for other patients whose injuries were not as plainly preventable as these incidents.

Congress and the state legislatures must immediately enact a truth commission to investigate Major League Baseball’s role in potentially covering up this scandal, seek the disclosure of all available data and records pertaining to this matter, and pass strict laws and regulations to ensure that future risk of serious injury or death from foul balls and bats entering the stands is eliminated.