BOSTON — The Red Sox said they will follow Major League Baseball recommendations and expand backstop netting behind home plate for the 2016 season.
The baseball club said it will proactively reach out to impacted ticket holders.
The guidelines were issued Wednesday at the winter meetings following a season in which several fans were injured by foul balls, including at least one at Fenway Park.
In August, a fan struck by a foul ball that went behind home plate during a Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park on June 17, 2014, sued the team’s principal owner.
Brookline, Massachusetts, resident Stephanie Taubin said in her lawsuit against John Henry that she was above home plate in the EMC Club when a ball came through an area usually protected by glass and hit her. The glass had been removed for renovations.
The suit says Taubin suffered facial fractures and neurological damage. She is seeking unspecified damages.
It is unclear whether or not this new netting would have prevented Taubin’s injury nor the injury of Stephanie Wapenski of Branford who was at Fenway Park in July for the traditional match up of the Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees.
She and her fiancee were celebrating the one-year anniversary of their engagement (which also happened at Fenway) and were sitting near the third base line.
During the 5th inning, Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorious hit a foul ball off the end of his bat which came straight for Stephanie’s head.
Wapenski was hit in the forehead and rushed to the hospital where she received more than 30 stitches.
Wapenski says she was alert and watching the game, and not distracted.
