Kansas City Royals: Fan safety to increase in 2020 at Kauffman Stadium

September 29th not only was the final game managed by Ned Yost and possibly the last game played by Alex Gordon, but also it is the last game where the majority of Kansas City Royals fans will watch unobstructed baseball at the K.

By Opening Day of 2020, there will be the most significant upgrade to the netting designed to mitigate the inherent risk of objects leaving the field of play since 2016. In 2016, the netting was extended past the dugouts. Toby Cook of the Kansas City Royals announced last month that the netting will go foul pole to foul.

Last week, an NBC article outlined and investigation conducted that found that there were at least 808 reports of injuries to fans from baseballs from 2012 to 2019. It was alarming in the report that some teams admitted they don’t track data related to injuries from objects leaving the field of play.

With a staggering number like 808 and teams openly admitting that they don’t really track injuries to fans, it is great to see the Royals placing emphasis on fan safety while other teams want to ignore it.

As a lifelong fan of baseball, I was an early critic that believed that fans simply need to pay attention or sit in sections where foul balls typically don’t land (upper deck). Fans needed to quit texting and talking on their cell phones and simply pay attention. My stance on this issue has drastically changed after witnessing a lady get hit in the face by a foul ball off the bat of Cleveland Indians outfielder Greg Allen.

Injuries like this have become all too common at MLB parks and also include injuries to young children and even killed an elderly lady at Dodger Stadium in 2018.

In a time when the NFL is always addressing safety in their players and MLB now requires helmet ear flaps and helmets for base coaches, why has MLB ignored fan safety? There is no answer and MLB is going to continue to pretend like these incidents aren’t happening.

Luckily the Kansas City Royals are a team that is proactive in doing something without MLB telling them to do so. For that, I thank the Royals for making sure we mitigate the risk of having to witness another unnecessary injury to a fan who just wanted to watch baseball in person.

This is a good move by the organization and one that most definitely needs to be made by every team in Major League Baseball.