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FBSN is getting its due from the Peoria Journal-Star for our long-time campaign for more netting at Dozer Park.

Background: Ever since discovering that Dozer Park was the only team in the PDL hosting games with no netting above the dugouts, Foul Ball Safety Now worked tirelessly to call attention to the risks to fan safety in Peoria. We hired planes to fly banners over the ballpark warning of the lack of netting, wrote letters to the Illinois governor, the MLB parent club St. Louis Cardinals, and Bradley University (which shares Dozer Park), and repeatedly contacted media state-wide in efforts to compel action.

Let this be a learning opportunity and an inspiration for other teams and ballparks in Illinois and everywhere to follow suit and extend netting as urgently as possible. Fans deserve nothing less.

Despite netting in MLB in 2025

Broadcaster takes unfortunate hit to the head & a Yankee fan experiences a broken cheek

We know of at least 40 professional minor league ballparks that started the 2025 baseball season without extended netting to protect fans seated beyond the dugouts, and a handful with no netting above the dugouts. Foul balls have already caused injuries in 2025. During Spring Training, a professional radio broadcast announcer who was watching the game extremely closely while calling the play from the booth, was hit in the head by a high-speed foul ball. On March 29, an MLB fan suffered a broken cheek from a high-speed line drive foul ball that went over the net at Yankee Stadium, indicating that existing netting is not enough to safeguard fans. Regardless of any progress, based on everything we’ve learned thus far, the risk of serious injury or death will likely persist into the future without the combination of regulatory oversight and law enforcement accountability to ensure that effective action is taken to stop fan injuries.

Watch Jordan Skopp and a panel discussing the historical problem of foul balls injuring fans and why some teams are still reluctant to put up protective netting in major leagues, minor leagues, partner leagues and college ballparks.

Highlighted Articles in the Media

“Smokies sued after woman struck by line drive” - The Mountain Press

An Ohio woman has sued the Tennessee Smokies asking for compensation for facial reconstruction surgery she said she needed after she was struck by a line drive at a 2022 game. Deborah Kay Roberts has paid more than $100,000 in medical bills as she recovered from injuries she suffered in the April 20, 2022 incident, according to a complaint she filed in the U.S. District Court in Knoxville. Read more… By Jeff Farrell, Staff Writer (Aug 22, 2023)
“Illinois Baseball Fan Cries Foul Over Team's No-Net Ballpark” - Law 360
A Peoria, Illinois, resident who was injured by a foul ball 12 years ago has filed a proposed class action against the Peoria Chiefs minor league baseball club in state court alleging its failure to install netting at its ballpark places fans in danger of serious injury. The Chiefs' Dozer Park is one of the few left in both the minor and major leagues that does not have netting behind its dugouts to protect fans. Read more… By Elaine Briseño, Law360 (July 28, 2023)
"After Numerous Foul Ball Fan Injuries, Baseball Reconsiders Protective Netting" - NPR
“What a Foul Ball Can Do” - Deadspin

“We watched 906 foul balls to find out where the most dangerous ones land”- FiveThirtyEight

Watch this Shocking Video

Time for MLB to mandate netting at all stadiums

This ESPN piece from 2019 by Jeremy Schaap is still relevant as dangerous conditions continue in dozens of minor league ballparks, and fans continue to face injury in the MLB stadiums as well.