After Hilliard Sues More Safety Nets In Baseball, MLB Agrees, Kind Of

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas, Dec. 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- After a federal lawsuit filed by Bob Hilliard on behalf of a season ticket holder seeking to compel MLB to extend the netting to protect fans, and after an internal review Major League Baseball has recently made a recommendation to each of its 30 teams to increase fan safety measures in ballparks, including extending the nets behind home plate.

From the official release:

Clubs are encouraged to implement or maintain netting (or another effective protective screen or barrier of their choosing) that shields from line-drive foul balls all field-level seats that are located between the near ends of both dugouts (i.e., the ends of the dugouts located closest to home plate, inclusive of any adjacent camera wells) and within 70 feet of home plate. The Commissioner's Office has retained a consultant specializing in stadium architecture and protective netting to assist interested Clubs in implementing this recommendation.

Bob Hilliard, who represents season ticket holders who filed a lawsuit against the MLB association, the commissioner of MLB Rob Manfred, and the office of the commissioner, alleging failures to enact safety measures against the danger of foul ball and bat injuries responds: "It's a very poor and discouraging start. I guarantee it's not nearly enough. A foul ball rocketing just above the dug out will hit a fan with the exact same amount of damaging force as if the fan were just a few feet closer. Yet one gets net protections and the other doesn't.

MLB is jumping over a dollar to spend a dime. Nets have to go along the entire length of the field.  This is not even a Band-Aid of a fix. It's a shameful showboating.

Not only that, this is the most milque-toast language MLB could have possibly chosen. 'Clubs are encouraged to implement…'  MLB will '…assist interested clubs in implementing this recommendation.'   This needs to be a strong and unequivocal mandate, no less than its zero tolerance on steroid use and domestic violence prohibitions. Instead it's a spineless response. They might as well have said, "If you want to extend the netting, fine with us. If not, no big deal."

About HMG
Hilliard Munoz Gonzales LLP (HMG) specializes in mass torts, personal injury, product liability, commercial and business litigation, and wrongful death. HMG has been successfully representing clients in the United States and Mexico since 1986. Bob Hilliard obtained the Largest Verdict in the country in 2012 and the #1 verdict in Texas in 2013. More about the firm can be found at www.hmglawfirm.com. Follow the firm for updates and news at @hmglawfirmcc.

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