A new initiative from fan safety advocates aims to create dialogue between fans and professional baseball players about historical and current risks to fans.
Foul Ball Safety Now has launched the Healing Project, an ambitious outreach campaign to identify and engage with retired and active professional baseball players regarding the past and present conditions of ballpark safety.
The goal is to spark a constructive conversation as professional baseball begins to heal the wounds of a century of insider knowledge about the fan injury crisis.
“Many players have already spoken with us about their experiences with dangerous foul ball injuries to fans, and have expressed their dismay that fans have faced (and still face in too many places) the risk of death or serious injury,” said Jordan Skopp, founder of Foul Ball Safety Now. “This is an honest and authentic opportunity for many more players to come forward and help us set the record straight about the preventable nature of foul ball fan injuries.”
Despite some improvements, there are professional ballparks operating to this day without adequate netting to stop a serious fan injury or even a death. Yet there is shockingly little awareness of this risk among fans – particularly young children who cannot be expected to understand, let alone accept, the risk — of a missile heading straight towards them.
Players understand this risk better than anyone, and they have had to go to work knowing that their foul balls could hurt or kill a fan for far too long. Players also recognize that robust protective netting could have prevented these injuries, but keep watching fans get sent off on stretchers for no good reason when solutions exist.
Whether a player personally hit a fan with a foul ball at some point in their career, or witnessed a fan injury while playing or watching baseball, or simply wants to share their views on this ongoing problem, we want to hear from you.
This project will properly put into historical context what we all knew was happening, express regret, and convey what we wish for the future of the game we all love.
“Through the Healing Project, we can come together to explore the root causes of this crisis, and to identify solutions to address this ongoing threat to fan safety,” Skopp said.
About Foul Ball Safety Now
Foul Ball Safety Now! is a campaign started by Jordan Skopp, a Brooklyn realtor, lifelong baseball fan, and author of a forthcoming book about the wildly overlooked scandal in the professional baseball industry – the all-too-frequent incidence of fans being maimed by dangerous foul balls due to the lack of extended protective netting, and related failures to educate fans about their assumed risk at the ballgame. For more information, visit Foul Ball Safety Now https://www.foulballsafetynow.com/