Major League Baseball redoubling efforts on netting after line drive hospitalizes girl

Local politicians vowed to ramp up the heat Thursday to pressure the Yankees to join the Mets in installing protective netting to better protect spectators. Rafael Espinal, who introduced legislation in May to require all New York City baseball stadiums to have protective netting all the way to the foul poles, said after Wednesday's episode that he would hold a public hearing on the issue on October 25.

Todd Frazier reacts to the fan struck by his foul line drive.

. It is something that I wish never happened. I think it could have been avoidable, if only netting had been put in place before yesterday's game. I hope she is all right. "Coincidentally I decided a few days ago to move forward with holding a hearing on my bill". "Obviously, we're looking at ways that we can enhance fan safety".

On Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds announced that they will extend the netting at the Great American Ballpark in time for next season. "In light of yesterday's event, we will redouble our efforts on this important issue".

If Major League Baseball were to expand to 32 professional teams, Portland would be "on the list" of possible teams, according to Commissioner Rob Manfred. After sitting in an area above the visitor's dugout at Kauffman Stadium in K.C. earlier in the season, the nets above the dugout did not distract my view from the play on the field at all.

TV broadcasts of Wednesday's game showed emotional shots of both Yankees and Twins players overcome with emotion during the delay after the incident. "We gave some guidelines two years ago, and what we have done since then is that we have encouraged the individual clubs to engage in a localized process, look at their own stadiums-every stadium's different-and to try to make a good decision about how far the netting should go in order to promote fan safety".