In the moment before he fell to his death Thursday, Shannon Stone shared a common goal with Josh Hamilton.
They both wanted to make a night at the ballpark something special for a little boy.
That intent won’t change, Rangers players and officials said Friday. Fans who come to Rangers Ballpark will still receive balls that go foul or are hit for outs that end innings.
"I’m certainly not going to suggest to our players that we don’t give baseballs away," team president and CEO Nolan Ryan said Friday. "It’s part of the game."
The idea of taking home a part of the game as a souvenir is almost as old as the game itself. It started with fans pursuing foul balls and home runs. According to David Weeks, baseball historian and author of the book Death at the Ballpark, it was actually much more dangerous in baseball’s earlier years when brawls regularly broke out in scrums.
During the last 15 years, the practice has grown tremendously. When baseball’s season-ending 1994 strike was settled, a league-wide initiative encouraged players to try to reconnect with fans by giving away more baseballs, which can include foul balls that don’t leave the playing field and the final out of an inning. Though the initiative no longer exists, according to MLB officials, a whole generation of pros has grown up knowing no other practice. Ryan said the practice has "evolved."
And they aren’t about to stop now.
"This was a terrible accident and you feel for everybody involved," Michael Young said. "But you don’t want to discourage players from involving fans in a special experience."
At its heart, that’s what the pursuit of an official major league baseball is. Fans can take home a piece of the game. It’s why as a kid, Young sprinted through the Dodger Stadium crowd to pursue a Darryl Strawberry foul ball. It’s why a young Mike Napoli, growing up in South Florida, pleaded with the brand new Florida Marlins to toss him a ball. Even Ryan said he’d go to Houston Colt .45s games as a kid with one goal in mind: to snare a baseball.
Sometimes, though, the attempt to make the experience special turns tragic. Thursday night’s incident was at least the sixth death resulting from an injury suffered in a major league stadium since 2008.
Three of the deaths, including one at Coors Field in Denver this year, were the result of fans trying to slide down railings. Another resulted from an inflatable slide falling on a fan; though he was initially treated and released, he died eight days later of a blood clot in his lungs caused by the incident. In 2009, a fan at Milwaukee’s Miller Park fell 14 feet after pursuing a ball hit during batting practice. He died three weeks later from a brain hemorrhage.
"The fans are always wanting a baseball or wanting to get close to the action," Rangers outfielder David Murphy said. "It’s something that you don’t think twice about. It happens every day, multiple times throughout the course of a game. It’s a shame that it takes a tragedy like this to make you think twice about it and realize what a danger it can be."
It was the second incident of the week involving a fan and a ball at Rangers Ballpark. Earlier during the homestand, a fan suffered facial fractures after being hit by a foul ball off the bat of Baltimore’s Nick Markakis.
And, yet on Friday, when four home runs sailed into the left-field stands near where Stone fell, fans converged on the souvenir. One of the homers was hit by Oakland’s Scott Sizemore. The fan who ended up with it threw it back onto the field, as is common practice after a visiting team’s home run.
Josh Hamilton picked it up and delivered it to the ball girl along the left-field line. She handed it to a fan.
The method for ensuring that fans get souvenirs may change; the intent, however, won’t.
They both wanted to make a night at the ballpark something special for a little boy.
That intent won’t change, Rangers players and officials said Friday. Fans who come to Rangers Ballpark will still receive balls that go foul or are hit for outs that end innings.
"I’m certainly not going to suggest to our players that we don’t give baseballs away," team president and CEO Nolan Ryan said Friday. "It’s part of the game."
The idea of taking home a part of the game as a souvenir is almost as old as the game itself. It started with fans pursuing foul balls and home runs. According to David Weeks, baseball historian and author of the book Death at the Ballpark, it was actually much more dangerous in baseball’s earlier years when brawls regularly broke out in scrums.
During the last 15 years, the practice has grown tremendously. When baseball’s season-ending 1994 strike was settled, a league-wide initiative encouraged players to try to reconnect with fans by giving away more baseballs, which can include foul balls that don’t leave the playing field and the final out of an inning. Though the initiative no longer exists, according to MLB officials, a whole generation of pros has grown up knowing no other practice. Ryan said the practice has "evolved."
And they aren’t about to stop now.
"This was a terrible accident and you feel for everybody involved," Michael Young said. "But you don’t want to discourage players from involving fans in a special experience."
Sometimes, though, the attempt to make the experience special turns tragic. Thursday night’s incident was at least the sixth death resulting from an injury suffered in a major league stadium since 2008.
Three of the deaths, including one at Coors Field in Denver this year, were the result of fans trying to slide down railings. Another resulted from an inflatable slide falling on a fan; though he was initially treated and released, he died eight days later of a blood clot in his lungs caused by the incident. In 2009, a fan at Milwaukee’s Miller Park fell 14 feet after pursuing a ball hit during batting practice. He died three weeks later from a brain hemorrhage.
"The fans are always wanting a baseball or wanting to get close to the action," Rangers outfielder David Murphy said. "It’s something that you don’t think twice about. It happens every day, multiple times throughout the course of a game. It’s a shame that it takes a tragedy like this to make you think twice about it and realize what a danger it can be."
It was the second incident of the week involving a fan and a ball at Rangers Ballpark. Earlier during the homestand, a fan suffered facial fractures after being hit by a foul ball off the bat of Baltimore’s Nick Markakis.
And, yet on Friday, when four home runs sailed into the left-field stands near where Stone fell, fans converged on the souvenir. One of the homers was hit by Oakland’s Scott Sizemore. The fan who ended up with it threw it back onto the field, as is common practice after a visiting team’s home run.
Josh Hamilton picked it up and delivered it to the ball girl along the left-field line. She handed it to a fan.
The method for ensuring that fans get souvenirs may change; the intent, however, won’t.
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