There are many instances where fans get hit by foul balls at baseball games. However, a judge’s decision on Thursday morning may be something that hasn’t been seen before. Sapporo district court judge Yasuhiro Hasegawa ruled that the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan must pay a woman more than $350,000 in damages after she was hit in the face by a foul ball nearly five years ago.
Stadiums in Japan have netting all the way around the field unlike in the United States but this ball still got to hit the woman, who lost sight in her right eye because of the incident. This is something that teams around Major League Baseball may want to pay very close attention to. There is going to be a lawsuit at some point about someone getting hurt by a line drive into the stands.
Is a judge here going to rule to give that fan a lot of money as well? Fans obviously should be paying attention to what is going on with the game instead of anything else. While it is not known what this woman was doing, she has a right to get something for her injuries even though there were announcements about watching out for foul balls. It is just an unfortunate incident.