Each of the teams must extend its park’s protective netting to at least the far ends of both dugouts by Opening Day.
Major League Baseball is casting its net wide for the 2018 season.
The league announced Thursday that all 30 major-league ballparks will have protective netting extending to at least the far ends of both dugouts by this year’s Opening Day.
“Providing baseball fans with a variety of seating options when they come to the ballpark, including seats behind protective netting, is important,” MLB commissioner Robert Manfred said in a statement. “Major League Clubs are constantly evaluating the coverage and design of their ballpark netting and I am pleased that they are providing fans an increased inventory of protected seats.”
Manfred’s announcement comes one day after both the Diamondbacks and Rays said they would extend their safety netting beyond the minimum recommendations issued by the league in 2015, becoming the 29th and 30th teams to do so.
An MLB spokesman said that Wednesday’s announcements made it unneccesary for the commissioner to issue a league-wide mandate, according to The New York Times .
In 2015, the league urged clubs to extend their netting from the area behind home plate to the near end of each dugout after a fan at Fenway Park suffered a serious head injury.
Multiple incidents in the stands during the 2017 season put further pressure on teams to improve fan safety. Yankee Stadium became the frequent site of fan injuries after a boy was hit in the head by a bat beyond the visitors’ dugout in May, and a man was struck by an Aaron Judge line drive down the right field line in July. Two months later, a 2-year-old girl suffered facial fractures when she was hit by a 105-mph shot off the bat of Todd Frazier.
The Yankees caved to the mounting pressure in October, announcing they would expand netting for 2018. The team detailed its plans last month, saying the netting will be partially retractable, will be attached to the roofs of both dugouts, and that stationary netting will extend beyond the far ends of the dugouts toward the foul poles.
The Daily News has long pushed for Major League Baseball to take this step amid multiple cases of largely preventable fan injuries.
The Mets heeded the News’ call and became the 10th MLB team to add extra netting, installing it along Citi Field’s first- and third-base lines during the 2017 All-Star break.
The change also came after New York City Councilman Rafael Espinal announced the introduction of a bill that, if it became law, would force both the Mets and Yankees to extend netting all the way to each foul pole.
