Exhibit A-1: Assessment of Heightened Risk of Foul Ball Injuries Due to Lack of Extended Netting at Professional Ballparks and Stadiums
Summary of Findings
Approximately 70 of the MLB-affiliated professional league baseball ballparks in North America lacked extended netting beyond the ends of the dugouts (as recently as the 2024 season).
Approximately 40 teams in the Professional Development League (PDL) did not have extended netting beyond the dugouts, exposing fans to heightened risk of serious foul ball injuries. At least one team, the Peoria Chiefs, played the 2024 season with no netting above the dugouts. More than half of the 70 teams surveyed are part of the PDL where MLB pays the salaries of those players.
At least 30 teams in the MLB Partner Leagues and Rookie League played games in 2024 with no extended netting past the ends of the dugouts, and several teams still had no (or partial) netting above the dugouts.*
Conservative Estimates and Calculations
MLB Estimates: On average, based on a 2019 report, there are 130,734 foul balls hit during an MLB regular season consisting of 2,430 games. That’s more than 50 foul balls per MLB game. By one calculation, about 53,000 foul balls enter the stands each year, and that’s just in MLB.
Minor League Estimates: There are at least five times as many games played in the professional minor leagues — roughly 14,000 professional minor league baseball games played annually in the Professional Development League (PDL), and MLB-affiliated Partner Leagues and Rookie League.
Foul Balls Per Game: Using a very conservative estimate of 25 foul balls per minor league game, this results in at least 350,000 foul balls each year in the minor leagues. Many of these land in the seating areas and other zones where fans could be exposed to the risk of serious injury, including kids’ playgrounds inside the ballpark, food courts, outfield lawns and picnic areas, as well as in areas outside the facilities such as sidewalks and parking lots that are reachable by foul balls.
Foul Balls in Unprotected Zones:
According to research conducted by FiveThirtyEight, 49.9% of foul balls land in areas past the dugouts where many ballparks lack netting. Foul Ball Safety Now calculates from that report that 174,650 of the 350,000 foul balls may have landed in those unprotected zones annually in minor league ballparks.
FiveThirtyEight analysis of Statcast data measured exit velocities for 580 of a sample of 906 foul balls, and “most of the hardest-hit of those 580 landed in areas that are primarily unprotected” by netting.
Background
In 2021, MLB restructured all of minor league baseball, and asserted further control over the operations of the minor league teams. It created the Professional Development League (PDL) of 120 licensed teams, plus 5 additional affiliated Partner Leagues below the PDL: American Association of Professional Baseball, Atlantic League, Frontier League, Pioneer League, and the Rookie League.
MLB announced on December 7, 2022 that “PDL Clubs are required to install netting from foul pole to foul pole unless the configuration of the ballpark makes such coverage unnecessary,” but MLB would not begin enforcing this policy change until opening day 2025. That meant fans in those ballparks would remain potentially exposed for two more seasons. It is still not a mandate from the Commissioner of Baseball, so it remains to be seen what enforcement will actually take place. MLB has not announced any funding to ensure the improvements are made in a timely manner. Therefore, fans at the PDL level were (and will remain) in greater danger until netting improvements are enforced and confirmed effective.
In the MLB-affiliated leagues below the PDL — the Partner and Rookie Leagues — the situation remains incredibly dangerous for fans, with no improvements or enforcement of fan safety standards in sight.
Many minor league ballparks offer free admission to young children, as well as kids’ playgrounds and family-friendly picnic areas that are typically situated in outfield areas that are not protected by netting.
Conclusion
Major League Baseball continues to put fans in great danger at ballparks where their affiliated minor league teams play professional baseball. MLB pays the salaries of these players in the PDL and Rookie Leagues, and should be expected to provide a safe environment for fans watching all of their affiliated teams and players conduct business. Even at the Partner Leagues, where MLB does not pay the players, they should be expected to provide a safe environment for fans.
MLB must take immediate action to eliminate the risk of fan injuries by enforcing extended netting at all MLB-affiliated ballparks, ideally with approval and oversight by proper regulatory agencies.
Children are especially vulnerable to serious injury, and should not be allowed to attend professional league games at these ballparks until the threat to their safety is fully eliminated.
Statement by Jordan Skopp
The following statement is from Jordan Skopp, founder of Foul Ball Safety Now.
The installation of extended netting takes only a matter of days, not years. There is no excuse for further delay. MLB must be compelled — whether by legislation, regulation, litigation or all three — to immediately safeguard fans from high-speed foul balls throughout all of its affiliated leagues.
Why is it acceptable to anyone that dangerous and deadly conditions continue to be tolerated throughout professional baseball?
Major League Baseball, a $50 Billion industry, simply doesn’t care about the lives of their fans, particularly those who attend minor league games. MLB is looking to continue producing a dangerous product at the expense and the welfare of the fans.
The U.S. Congress and federal agencies must intervene with investigations and legislation to hold MLB accountable and to regulate safety protocols for all professional baseball facilities to ensure fans are protected from dangerous foul balls.
We need Foul Ball Safety Now!
Sources:
FiveThirtyEight.com study with analytics: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/we-watched-906-foul-balls-to-find-out-where-the-most-dangerous-ones-land/
Underlying data: https://github.com/fivethirtyeight/data/tree/master/foul-balls
NBC News study: “Batters hit more foul balls in 2019 than in any of the previous 20 years. Average foul balls per game increased from 48.9 in 2000 to 53.8 per game in the first half of the 2019 season.” 2,430 MLB x 53.8 foul balls = 130,734 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/sports/we-re-going-need-bigger-net-foul-balls-hurt-hundreds-n1060291
Bloomberg News: 53,000 foul balls enter the seats every year in MLB. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-09-09/baseball-caught-looking-as-fouls-injure-1-750-fans-a-year
*Note: Foul Ball Safety Now did not analyze the netting status in the Rookie Leagues (ACL, FCL, DSL, and GCL). Therefore, the estimated number of ballparks with no netting above or beyond the dugouts is surely higher than indicated here.
Additional References:
Baltimore Sun analysis in 2007
Spray Charts from Statcast Data https://baseballwithr.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/spray-charts-from-statcast-data/
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