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Nationals announce plan to extend protective netting at ballpark

liz roscher
Staff writer

Mark W. Lerner, principal owner and vice chairman of the Washington Nationals, announced Thursday in a letter published on the team blog that the Nationals will be extending the protective field netting at Nationals Park.

“Over the past few weeks, we have seen several fans injured by bats and balls leaving the field of play at other stadiums,” Lerner wrote. “I could not help but become emotional last month watching the Astros-Cubs game when a four-year-old little girl was hit by a line drive. I can’t imagine what her parents must have felt in that moment. And to see the raw emotion and concern from Albert Almora Jr. was heartbreaking. Further extending the netting at Nationals Park will provide additional protection for our fans.”

The netting, which currently goes from the far end of the home dugout to the end of the visitors dugout, will be extended just short of the left and right field corners, and will be knotless to improve transparency.

The netting by the dugouts will be designed so it can be raised before games so fans and players can interact. Lerner wrote that the new netting will be installed during the All-Star Break.

The Nationals are the third MLB team to extend their ballpark’s protective netting. The Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers both announced earlier this week their plans to extend the netting at their home ballparks. The White Sox will take the netting from foul pole to foul pole, while the Rangers’ plan is similar to what the Nationals are doing, which is extending the netting further into the outfield. Both are a massive improvement in fan safety.

The incident Lerner mentioned in his letter, in which a young girl was struck by a line drive hit by Chicago Cubs player Albert Almora Jr., happened on May 29. It’s just one of several significant ball- or bat-related injuries sustained by fans over the last few years. A number of teams have been reluctant in the past to install netting, worried that it would negatively impact the view for fans (as well as high-priced corporate clients). With three teams already on board without a directive from Major League Baseball, maybe now there won’t be any foot-dragging on improving fan safety.

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