The Atlanta Braves are exploring the potential extension of protective netting at SunTrust Park, though team officials caution that a final decision has not been made.
Since a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Houston’s Minute Maid Park in May, there has been increased conversation about whether protective netting should be extended farther down the foul lines at ballparks. This has especially apparent throughout Major League Baseball, as a few teams have already announced plans to extend netting this season or have indicated that they are planning to do so in the near future.
Protective netting at SunTrust has run to the far ends of the dugouts since the ballpark’s 2017 opening, but the Braves are exploring the idea of extending it farther down the foul line. No final decision has been made, however, as the team continues to evaluate the idea. More from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
The Braves, who installed netting to the far end of both dugouts when SunTrust Park opened in 2017, now are evaluating whether to extend it farther down the foul lines.
“We have not made a decision on that yet,” Braves president and CEO Derek Schiller said Tuesday, “but it is something that we are considering.” …
Among the issues the Braves are evaluating is how further extending the netting would work within the design of SunTrust Park, where the seats jut closer to the field near the outfield corners.
“The geometry becomes something that has to be considered and is something that we’re looking at, as far as if we were to extend the netting how we might do so,” Schiller said.
In 2018, all MLB teams were required to extended netting to the end of the dugouts, but since the incident in Houston there have been calls for teams to extend netting as far as the foul poles. There have already been a few teams to take action during this season, as the Chicago White Sox and Washington Nationals both previously announced plans to extend netting during the 2019 campaign. A few other clubs, meanwhile, have publicly stated that they plan to extend netting at their current facilities. That includes the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, and Kansas City Royals.
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