Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor became the latest player to suffer the awful experience of accidentally hitting a child with a line drive foul ball Sunday, and he wants steps taken to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
Lindor urged MLB teams to expand netting all the way down both foul lines after he hit a child with a line drive. He said he was told that a three-year-old boy was hospitalized as a result of the accident.
“I encourage every MLB team to put the nets all the way down,” Lindor said, via ESPN. “I know it’s all about the fans’ experience of interacting with players and I completely get that. You want to have that interaction with the fans, getting autographs and stuff, but at the end of the day, we want to make sure everybody comes out of this game healthy, and we got to do something about it.
“Everybody feels bad. And if we can put the nets a little bit further down, I think it would be a lot better.”
Lindor is essentially echoing the call of Cubs outfielder Albert Almora Jr., who experienced the same fate in a frightening incident in Houston in May. MLB has yet to mandate that all 30 teams expand netting past the end of the dugouts, but as incidents like this continue to occur and pressure grows publicly, it’s only a matter of time before that changes.
