Don't Let An Accident Take the Magic Away!

There is something magical about catching a baseball at a ballgame, something so magical that grown men crave it just as much as children.  People will sacrifice $10 beers; catch balls with babies in their arms, and fight over the ball as if it was a gold bar worth millions of dollars.  When one gets a ball, they hold it up in triumph as if it were a trophy; the crowd applauds and sometimes cheers.  The pursuit and catching a ball inside a stadium is noble and awe-inspiring.

Which makes what happened last week at a Texas Rangers game just awful.  I’m sure many of you know the horrific details so I won’t get into them but in a nutshell, Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers threw up a foul ball to a fan by the name of Shannon Stone.  He was trying to get the ball for his 6 year old son and leaned over too far and fell about 20 feet and died from his injuries of the fall.  It wasn’t Hamilton’s fault, it wasn’t Stone’s fault, and it simply was a horrible horrible mistake.  Player’s do this all the time, its part of the charm of baseball, and fans love it.  It’s taking a piece of tradition home with you from the stadium.

I’m sure in the moments before the fall, this man was indescribably happy.  He was going to catch a baseball from one of the best players in the game and hand it to his son who would have a great story to tell all his friends for the rest of his life.  Unfortunately the ball came up short and to no one’s fault an accident occurred.  It’s a shame too because now, a six year old has to grow up without a father and Josh Hamilton, who’s been through a lot himself, has to have this on his conscience for the rest of his life.  It’s unfair really, to all those involved but again we have to see this how it is, a horrible awful accident.

As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve stressed how this was an accident pretty hardcore in this blog entry.  My point to it all is that we can’t change something that is so great about the game of baseball because of a horrible accident.  Maybe it’s me but we can’t let this accident stop players from interacting with fans and take away the magic that makes baseball one of the best sports and entertainment out there.

This type of thing hardly ever happens in stadiums and if it does, it’s usually a fan’s drunken stupor that leads to it.  Kind of like the incident at Coors Field earlier this year when a drunken idiot tried to slide down an escalator and fell to his death.  Even those incidents are far and in between.  Should we stop fan interaction and getting a ball from your favorite because of one senseless accident?  Absolutely not!

I’ve never been lucky enough to get a foul ball at a stadium or even have a player toss one up to me.  Do you think that this incident will stop me from trying?  Heck no, in fact, I’ll keep trying to get a souvenir for my son just like Mr. Stone I’m sure would have kept trying had he lived through this accident.  Perhaps stadiums should look into railings around the ballpark and re-access how tall they are but at the same time, let’s not go overboard here.  It’s not like we’re talking about hundreds of people falling out of the stands.  Let’s call it what it was, an accident and just pray and hope it never happens again.

Next time you attend a baseball game, look around you.  See how many people have gloves at the game.  Not just kids either, they’ll be tons of adults with glove.  Let’s not take that away, let’s keep the magic of getting a baseball at the stadium intact!