Houston Astros: More safety measures are needed at Minute Maid Park

It’s time for the Houston Astros to revisit their fan safety measures after an unfortunate incident to a young fan Wednesday. What should happen? Look.

HoustonAstrosfans — fan safety needs to become a higher priority at Minute Maid Park so it’s time to discuss the inevitable.

What happened at the HoustonAstrosgame Wednesday night was heartbreaking and sad to see. A little girl was unintentionally struck by a foul ball from Chicago Cubs centerfielderAlbert Almora Jr.during the fourth inning.

This may be tough for some to watch but here’s the clip. Viewer discretion is advised.

I didn’t see the accident even though I was there in person, it happened so quick that I didn’t even realize what had happened until I saw everyone in the stadium just pause in utter shock. Fans, players from both teams just forgot about the game for a minute and put their full attention to this little girl.

Alex Bregman,Tony Kempand others went down on one knee and just forgot about baseball for a moment. Almora was visiblyshaken by the whole incident, even breaking down in a security guard’sarms as he went over to the section where the accident occurred.

The HoustonAstrosreleased the following statement after the game:

I texted my wife several times to let her know what was going on and it got me to thinking, should Major League Baseball make the nets higher and wider for the safety of all fans, young and old?

I’ve been to many baseball games, both pro and college and I have never seen anything like this. That little girl was defenseless against that baseball and the HoustonAstrosneed to do something NOW to prevent this from ever happening again.

A fandiedbecause of a foul ball being hit over the netting at Dodger Stadium last summer. Linda Goldbloom was struck in the head while watching the Dodgers take on the San Diego Padres and she suffered a traumatic head injury that she was not able to overcome.

Goldbloom’s daughter, Jana Brody, who was not with her mother at the time of the accident, told the New York Times this back in February:

"“I would love to see higher nets,” Brody said in a telephone interview. “The trajectory of the ball can only get hit so far until it starts to arc and come down and then be a more manageable ball to catch or whatever. But where she was sitting, there was no chance for it to lob over. It was a straight shot.”"

Currently, Major League Baseball has netting behind the dugouts in all 30 ballparks after

More fromHouse of Houston

• Are you the 2021 FanSided Sports Fan of the Year?
• Houston Texans: 4 reasons Romeo Crennel is right coach right now
• Astros-Twins Wild Card Series: 5 things to know as MLB postseason begins
• Houston Texans: The Most Underrated Sports Drought Ever
• Houston Texans: J.J. Watt’s early case for NFL Hall of Fame

Commissioner Rob Manfred suggested they do so back in 2015. The HoustonAstrosalready have protective netting between sections 112-126.

It’s time for the HoustonAstrosto do the right thing and extend netting to prevent this from happening again. The HoustonAstrosshould adopt the Japanese netting model and put netting from foul pole to foul pole. In Japan, fans are warned multiple times during the game to watch out for foul balls. They even have ushers with horns to signal where a foul ball is going.

I’m not saying that the HoustonAstrosand MLB should do all of these things at once; however, doing something is better than nothing and it really doesn’t obstruct one’s view of the game.

If theNHLcan put netting around their rinks for games, then why can’t the HoustonAstrosextend the netting?

I think they should because it would make the fan experience that much more enjoyable and prevent these awful incidents from happening.

My best wishes go out to that little girl and her family.

Add us as a preferred source onGoogle

Follow