Jordan Skopp
Lifelong baseball fan who’s become safety advocate, thorn in MLB’s side, calling for accountability for foul ball injury crisis. Available for keynotes, lectures, public and private events. Topical interests: sports, consumer affairs, pop culture, entertainment, law and legal matters, advocacy
Background:
Skopp became curious after a high-profile incident involving a young child who was seriously injured by a foul ball at an MLB game. How is this possible? How often does it happen? Why is it tolerated? He’s spent the past 5 years becoming an investigative journalist, inspiring lawyers to file lawsuits, interviewing a large range of affected victims and family members, and dozens more people employed in the professional baseball industry about foul ball injuries.
As a result of his deep dive into investigating this scandal, Jordan discovered a pattern of behavior that he argues is evidence of a Baseball Industrial Complex — a sport so entrenched in its outdated positions and arrogant attitudes towards its fans that it is reminiscent of the tobacco industry in its reckless disregard for the health and safety of its customers. He’s a walking encyclopedia of intriguing anecdotes and stories, and he gathers new material every week. As the campaign unfolds, more evidence keeps on mounting.
Skopp’s speech invites an uncomfortable conversation that contradicts how baseball has conducted its business around fan safety for 100 years. The audience comes to understand that this is a dire situation that deserves deep reflection, and immediate action.
Thanks to his efforts earning wide coverage across the major baseball media markets in the U.S., Japan and Korea, a growing number of fans are aware of the threats, and the bloom falls slowly off the rose. But not fast enough for Skopp.
The modern baseball industry is a house of cards – they’ve knowingly hidden the secret of foul ball dangers from fans — and the more exposure this issue gets, the closer the house of cards is to crashing down. Skopp’s campaign won’t stop until it does.
No more secrets. Baseball can’t function as a wholesome entertainment option for families any longer.
Watch this 2019 ESPN video for a 5-minute explanation of this scandal
Nobody from ESPN has called Skopp in five years. Did MLB call them off?
MLB’s 2022 announcement about potential improvements to minor league netting by 2025 followed Skopp’s multi-year effort to raise awareness of the dire situation in the minor leagues.
Skopp had released thorough reports detailing the worst offenders in the minor leagues, flying airplanes over the Peoria Chiefs ballpark, and inspiring lawsuits filed by victims of foul balls against professional baseball leagues.
“I’m up against the Baseball Industrial Complex – where writers are part of the problem and can’t be relied upon to investigate critically. They’re not willing to bite the industry hand that feeds them.”
Bio:
Jordan Skopp is a realtor, philanthropist and life-time baseball fan from Brooklyn, New York. Jordan is the founder of FoulBallSafetyNow.com dedicated to increasing fan awareness of the dangers of foul ball injuries. Conservative estimates are that 5,000 fans have been injured, many seriously, by foul balls in Major and Minor league ballparks since 2012. Erwin Goldbloom, whose wife was killed by a foul ball at a Los Angeles Dodgers game in 2018, and others have joined Jordan in advocating for proper netting throughout MLB and the minor leagues. Jordan’s efforts have received national news coverage in the Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, ESPN, People, as well as international press in Korea and Japan. He has interviewed and advocated for victims and families affected by foul ball injuries. He is committed to raising awareness among fans and families with small children in an effort to create an “epiphany of outrage” about the dangers of attending ball games, and exposing MLB’s complicity in hiding the risk of life-altering injuries, which Skopp compares to Big Tobacco’s deception efforts.
Passionate, educational, eye-opening speeches
Topic 1: For any audience
Jordan Skopp, founder of FoulBallSafetyNow.com, delivers an engaging (at time enraging) indictment of professional baseball for failing to protect the health and safety of fans. There are 100 million professional baseball fans in America – shockingly few are aware of how dangerous it can be to set foot inside a stadium or ballpark. And nobody is aware of the risk and consequences of just strolling by one of these facilities where dangerous foul ball missiles can maim or kill.
Skopp’s speech takes the audience on a wild ride of discovery and mutual disgust over the ongoing scandal of fan injuries and deaths from dangerous foul balls. He explains why we should all be horrified that this keeps happening in 2024.
An 8-year-old boy was struck in the eye by a foul ball on May 17 at Dodger Stadium – the same ballpark where the two known fan fatalities from foul balls occurred (Alan Fish in 1970 and Linda Goldbloom in 2018). A fan was blinded by a foul ball at a Pittsburgh Pirates game on July 1, 2023. Two young children were critically injured last summer at minor league ballparks operated by MLB affiliated teams.
Skopp is not a lawyer, nor an investigative journalist. He’s spending his own money on a crusade to take on one of the most powerful and wealthy entertainment industries in the world. Bold? Absolutely.
Skopp has been holding a vigil of one ever since as a unique whistleblower. He argues passionately that it is high time for accountability in professional baseball, not only to take immediate action to protect fans from unnecessary risks from dangerous foul balls, but also to look back at all of the ways that baseball owners, executives, broadcasters, journalists, even players and coaches, have failed their fans.
How many more fans need their heads smashed before everyone wakes up to the reality that baseball has been hiding this from us for decades? Players and managers admit warning their own families to sit behind the netting, but nobody warns the rest of us. Baseball players have been forced to continue on with business as usual, not speaking regularly about the foul ball threat that faces fans every day.
What kind of world are we living in when baseball players receive media praise for giving victims autographed bats and balls after their line drives smash fans’ heads? (e.g. Mike Trout received media praise in early May 2015 for his gesture of giving a bat to a young boy who was hit by a foul ball in San Francisco.)
This Spring, the baseball trading company Topps created a distasteful card featuring a woman who was smashed in the head by a 110MPH foul ball at a Toronto Blue Jays game. Topps, which is worth half a billion dollars, should not be glorifying fan injuries.
Fans need closure, they deserve sincere apologies, and they’ll never get it as long as the house of cards stands. Skopp is the living breathing voice of the frustrated fans with no closure.
Topic 2: For the Law/Legal audience
Jordan is leading the fight to eliminate the Baseball Rule, adopted decades ago by courts and a handful of state legislatures, which holds that fans injured by high-speed foul balls can rarely receive compensation in court, no matter how badly they are hurt, so long as the home team has taken bare minimum steps to protect spectators.
Smashed beer cans and windshields are reminders that missiles are still flying and they can connect with heads of fans of any age and change lives in an instant.
The lady walking past the ballpark on her way to the supermarket doesn’t suspect that a foul ball could exit the stadium and ruin her life. Skopp experienced this scenario first-hand two decades ago while standing on the street with a group of friends and one of them was hit in the arm outside of a ballpark – out of the blue – in Brooklyn’s Coney Island.
Where is the superhero shield to protect the lady walking past the ballpark with her shopping bags on game day? Where’s the plexiglass shield to protect the family walking with their little ones from the parking lot to the entrance gate when missiles could be raining down on their unsuspecting heads?
Preventive measures are clearly still not in place, and have never been. Balls are still breaking windows and breaking heads, and basic steps have not been taken to protect fans.
Skopp’s evidence file is so rich, he’s building the equivalent of a grand jury investigation that will lead to the indictment (in the court of public opinion, if not in actual courts) of professional baseball for negligence, willful and wanton conduct, outrage… the list goes on. His digital footprint continues to expand as he’s been featured as an issue expert on podcasts, virtual press conferences and a panel hosted by the American Museum of Tort Law.
Watch how Skopp keeps discovering one rabbit hole after another that deserve deeper investigation to find out what lies beneath. The scandal lives on. The legal community, which is familiar with the Baseball Rule that is rigorously debated in law schools, is the perfect antidote needed to bring accountability for MLB’s 100-year trail of deceit and disrespect. Not convinced? Spend an hour listening to Jordan Skopp!
Let’s eliminate the unknown factors and let fans in on the dangerous realities. Something that we can all agree on in 2024: No kids should be getting smashed by unsolicited foul balls.
Skopp educates the audience about the living and breathing Baseball Maiming Society, and what must be done to correct course.
Speakers Fees: Negotiable
Skopp intends to donate any proceeds earned from his appearances towards further advocacy and legal accountability, such as contracting lawyers to file cases on behalf of victims, conducting further plane flyovers at dangerous ballparks to warn fans of ongoing risks, and producing informative content to attract more attention to this ongoing issue.