Protective netting has been extended at major league ballparks to protect fans. On Thursday, the netting helped protect a ballplayer.
Jeff McNeil of the New York Mets, nicknamed "The Flying Squirrel," went airborne at Guaranteed Rate Field and bounced into the net to make an acrobatic catch of a foul ball hit by White Sox batter Eloy Jimenez, the Chicago Tribune reported.
McNeil's catch down the right-field line came during the fifth inning. The netting allowed McNeil to run full speed without breaking his stride. He caught the ball and tumbled into the stands, but the netting prevented the outfielder and fans from getting injured because it broke McNeil's fall.
"It was like falling into a trampoline at a circus or something," Mets manager Mickey Callaway told MLB.com.
The White Sox were the first major league team to extend netting from to the foul poles, the Tribune reported. The move came after Eloy Jimenez hit a sharp foul into the seats at Guaranteed Rate Field on June 10 and injured a woman, the newspaper reported. In May, Albert Almora Jr.'s foul ball struck and injured a small child in Houston. On June 23, a woman was injured at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles when she was struck by a foul ball hit by Cody Bellinger.
On Aug. 25, 2018, Linda Goldbloom, 79, was hit by a foul ball during the ninth inning of a game at Dodger Stadium. Goldbloom, who was celebrating her birthday and her 59th wedding anniversary, died four days later after emergency brain surgery, KTLA reported.
On Thursday, McNeil raced to the foul line with the Mets leading 1-0.
"I knew the net was there and I knew it was going to be really close," McNeil told reporters after the game. "That fence is really low, so you don’t want to try and stop there. Best-case scenario there was to kind of jump into the net and use it for my protection."
McNeil said even without the netting, he would have tried to make the catch, the North Jersey Record reported.
“It would’ve been unfortunate for whoever was in the front row, but I’m going into the stands on that," McNeil told reporters after the Mets' 4-0 victory.
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