It has been about a year and a half since I was hit by the baseball bat that I talk about here. To this day, my orbital rim is still broken which effects my day to day life. I am still limited on what activities I can do, what I can eat, how long I can talk and smile, etc but I also have a Traumatic Brain Injury as a result of the impact. I mostly have it under control with natural supplements, but it definitely makes itself known when I overdo it. This all could have been prevented if MLB required netting from dugout to dugout in every stadium. Chase Field has very quietly added this netting recently. The funding was approved well before my incident, however it was only recently put up, and most likely saved someone from injury at a recent game where a bat went flying INTO the net.

MLB needs to take a more active role in fan safety. A woman nearly died last weekend in front of her son due to injuries from a broken bat. There is no reason that needs to happen. What will it take for MLB to open their eyes and finally do something??? I sincerely hope that it does not take a person dying at a game from a bat injury for them to finally wake up.

I tell my story everywhere I go, not because I want people to stop going to games, but because most do not understand the risks they are taking depending on where they sit and very very few know of the waiver on your ticket and almost all that I speak to think that the team is responsible when these incidents occur. Nearly every person I speak to thinks the team took care of my costs, and are appalled when they learn of my experiences. If baseball is the national past time, then let’s make it safer for all of the fans to attend. I am so tired of those that blame myself and other victims for our injuries because “we should have been paying more attention to the game.” There is no time to react to something like a flying bat, and reacting could actually cause far worse injuries depending on where you end up hit.

I am so grateful that I am alive and that I did not lose my vision, but that may not be the case for the next person. They may not simply be inconvenienced by the injuries that they suffer from, as I am. When I go out to dinner with friends, I have to explain why I can’t eat that delicious salad or juicy steak. When we go to Disney or anywhere else with rides, I have to sit back and wait while my friends all go on the ride, or run the 1/2 marathon or any other number of things, in any number of places because it will cause me too much pain, and more damage, to partake in them. I am grateful though that I am merely “inconvenienced” by these things and that hopefully, although years down the road, in the future I will no longer be inconvenienced because I chose to go to a baseball game with friends.

Please share both my original story and this one so that we can spread the word and hopefully get changes made so that people can enjoy baseball without worrying about dying, just because they choose to sit close to the field. I know that there are those that don’t agree because they feel the net will hinder their enjoyment of the game, but I like to think that if it happened to them, or someone close to them, they would change their mind real quick. This is about ADDING enjoyment back to the game, rather than taking it away.