What is the Healing Project?

This is an opportunity for retired and active professional baseball players to help set the record straight about the foul ball fan injury crisis.

Despite some improvements, we all know that there are professional ballparks operating to this day without adequate netting to stop a serious fan injury or even a death. That is no longer acceptable to us.

Whether you personally hit a fan with a foul ball at some point in your career, or witnessed a fan injury while playing or watching baseball, or simply want to share your views on this ongoing problem, we want to hear from you.

This healing project is designed to spark a constructive conversation as professional baseball begins to heal the wounds of a century of insider knowledge about the fan injury crisis. 

You may wish to express sorrow and regret for being part of a community that left fans uninformed. Each of you discovered at some point on the journey in your professional career that the fans were facing serious risks of injury or death from foul balls and bats entering the stands at high speeds. Especially for those who played prior to the extension of netting above the dugouts, many of you worried about the fans – particularly the children – who were unprepared for a missile heading straight towards them. 

Many players knew that the fans were in great danger, and kept on playing anyway, and watched fans get sent off on stretchers for no good reason when netting could’ve prevented these injuries. 

Nobody refused to take the field, or walked out on contract negotiations when the owners rejected pleas for more netting. Piecemeal efforts were not enough to prevent the unnecessary deaths of Linda Goldbloom, Alan Fish, and Wendy Whitehead, or the serious injuries to many fans (and at least 45 children in the past 15 years, most of them hit in the head).

This is an opportunity to tell the fans who were uninformed that players knew this was happening all along. Many warned their own families to sit behind the netting (but didn’t warn the rest of the fans). It’s time to acknowledge discomfort that this has remained an open secret for too long, and finally, to say that you’re sorry for having a role in that. 

Going forward, this collection of stories will properly put into historical context what we all knew was happening, express regret, and convey what we wish for the future of the game we all love.