Protective netting at Huntington Park will be extended to the foul poles, as the Columbus Clippers (Class AAA; International League) confirm plans to complete the installation by the 2020 season.
Across professional baseball, there has been a wave of projects to extend netting farther down the foul lines since last season, coming on the heels of a May incident in which a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. This is continuing into 2020, as Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said last month that all 30 teams will have extended netting of some sort at their facilities by the upcoming season, and several clubs around MLB either made changes to netting at their ballparks during the 2019 season or have announced plans to do so for 2020.
In a few cases around both MLB and MiLB, teams either already have completed or announced plans to extended the protective netting to the foul poles at their facilities. The Clippers are now among the latest with plans to do so, as the installation work will begin soon and be completed by the start of the upcoming season. More from NBC4:
Columbus Clippers’ President and General Manager Ken Schnacke said he truly wants Huntington Park to be safe for the entire family
He said the netting will be up at the start of this season.
Baseballs coming off a bat can travel more than 100 miles per hour, and for most fans, dodging something that fast is nearly impossible.
“As you saw what happened in baseball, and some of the people that have been seriously hurt, and we had one that got drilled pretty good here last year, we made a conscientious effort to decide that we were going to take the next steps,” said Schnacke.
The Clippers will host the Louisville Bats in their home opener on April 9.
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