Bernstein: MLB Can't Have It Both Ways
By Dan Bernstein--
CBSChicago.com senior columnist
(CBS) Balls are rocketing into the stands at every baseball game, along with the occasional jagged chunk of a bat as a lucky, potentially deadly souvenir.
Sometimes a hitter is kind enough to offer the entirety of 33 ounces of maple to the fans, letting it slip from his grasp and fly into the 100 level — a flat-spinning, headhunting helicopter. You can't beat fun at the ol' ballpark.
After each gasp-inducing near-miss or unfortunate impact that has uniformed medical personnel scurrying to the latest injured party, broadcasters always issue the same kind of somber warning to viewers and listeners, something like, "When you're at the game, it's important that you're always paying attention to the action on the field, folks. Foul balls are very dangerous, so you have to be aware so you don't get hurt."
Technically, they're correct. It's the responsibility of the attendee to assume the inherent risks of sitting in a specific place, as explained by the legalese disclaimer on the back of the ticket: "The holder assumes all risk and danger incidental to the Game, whether occurring prior to, during or subsequent to the actual playing of the Game, including specifically (but not exclusively) the danger of being injured by thrown bats, or fragments thereof, and thrown or batted balls…"
But increasingly this is turning into victim-blaming, exposing baseball's disingenuous effort to provide more distraction from the game itself than ever, then telling those fans to ignore all the team-sponsored activity happening around them and keep their eyes on the ball.
This latest round of concern was set off by the incident at Fenway Park on Friday, when a woman was hit in the head by Brett Lawrie's broken bat and rushed to the hospital, where she now remains, her condition upgraded from critical to fair.
Again we raise the obvious point, that MLB will soon make the same decision as the NHL after a fan was killed by a puck and install netting to protect as many fans as possible. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the players have twice tried to collectively bargain such nets — with too many of them having experienced the dread of accidentally hurting a spectator — but the owners have refused, citing an unwillingness to obstruct more expensive views.
That's hogwash, of course, with the highest-priced seats behind the plate already protected. What teams market as scout seats, complete with the private lounge and wait staff, are themselves behind a net. And those in the big-money sections elsewhere are often using them for business purposes, glad-handing clients and socializing as much as they are hanging on every pitch.
More importantly, the same teams refusing to shield their fans are going out of their way to compete for the millenial attention span and multi-tasking ability by installing massive video boards dense with statistics and upgrading in-stadium wireless coverage to keep everyone's devices engaged. Games are marketed as social events, now, rather than just collective consumption of the on-field action.
Fans are texting, snapping pictures and sharing them on Twitter and Instagram, then tracking their single-day fantasy wagers, just as MLB teams want them to. Most franchises even advertise their own official app and urge fans to stay connected with it during the game. It's hard to stay vigilant for that foul liner when clicking on something the team itself told you to click.
What's more, the culinary arms race has turned eating at one's seat into a detailed operation of spatial planning. The dog-and-a-beer simplicity has been supplanted by the $27, 24-inch shareable mega-sausage, four-pound cheeseburger and chicken-waffle platter that may just need some attention while the game's going on. And good luck to the parents of young kids who are trying in vain to keep them from getting mustard in their hair or eating peanuts off the ground.
In other words, it just comes off as insincere now for MLB teams to say that their fans bear the responsibility of watching out for every possible danger while the stadium experience has been actively designed to be more distracting than ever.
It's unfair and unreasonable to insist that people pay rapt attention amid such manufactured sensory demands, and baseball should take steps to keep them safe.
Dan Bernstein is a co-host of 670 The Score's "Boers and Bernstein Show" in afternoon drive. Follow him on Twitter @dan_bernstein and read more of his columns here.