A then two-year-old girl who was hospitalized after being struck by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium in 2017 has made a recovery that is “nothing short of a miracle,” according to her father in details reported by The New York Post.
During a September 2017 game between the New York Yankees and visiting Minnesota Twins, a line drive off the bat of then Yankees third baseman Todd Frazier hit a young girl sitting in the stands down the third-base line. The line drive, which reportedly left the bat at over 100 mph, struck the girl in the middle of her forehead and the bridge of her nose, resulting in her being carried out of Yankee Stadium and transported to a hospital. She suffered skull fractures and both of her eyes were swollen shut.
According to new information from her father, Geoffrey Jacobson, the girl’s short-term injuries have healed. While she still sees an eye doctor and neurologist every six months, the now four-year old girl has made a recovery that her father describes as “nothing short of a miracle.” More from The New York Post:
The father of a 2-year-old girl blasted in the face by a screaming line drive at Yankee Stadium three years ago told The Post his daughter’s recuperation is “nothing short of a miracle.”
“An inch up or down, left or right and things could be completely different,” a grateful Geoffrey Jacobson told The Post in a series of e-mails. “At this point she gets to live like a normal 4-year-old. There are no more eye patches, no more restrictions. Just periodic doctor appointment checkups.”
In the future, the girl might have to have surgery on her orbital socket or nose and still goes to the eye doctor and neurologist every six months, but “her short term injuries are healed,” Jacobson said.
The incident prompted immediate calls from some players for Major League Baseball teams to provide additional protective netting at ballparks, and the league ultimately announced before the 2018 season that all 30 of it clubs would provide netting to at least the far ends of the dugouts. After a young girl was severely struck by a foul ball at Minute Maid Park last May, several teams extended their netting either to or closer to the foul poles during the 2019 season, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in December that all teams will have extended netting netting of some sort in 2020.
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