Philadelphia Phillies Extending Safety Netting At Citizens Bank Park Next Season
PHILADELPHIA (CBS/CNN) -- The Philadelphia Phillies are extending its safety netting at Citizens Bank Park for next season. The 12-foot-high netting will extend beyond the end of each dugout, but it's unclear if it will go all the way to the foul poles.
The netting was raised from eight feet to 12 feet high at the beginning of the 2018 season.
The Phillies are the latest Major League Baseball team to extend the protective netting due to fan safety.
In August, the Houston Astros extended netting at Minute Maid Park after a 2-year-old girl was struck by a foul ball in the head in May.
The girl sustained a fractured skull, subdural bleeding, brain contusions and a brain edema, according to her family's attorney.
The Chicago White Sox became the first team to extend the netting from foul pole to foul pole. The Washington Nationals also expanded its protective netting.
Last year, Major League Baseball announced that all 30 ballparks were extending protective netting to at least the far ends of both dugouts, though there are clubs that go beyond those guidelines.
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