Tampa Tribune
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A woman sitting behind the extended netting to the right of home plate was struck on the side of her head near her eye with a foul ball off the bat of Tampa Bay Rays right fielder Steven Souza Jr., during Friday night’s game against the Chicago White Sox.
She was attended to by paramedics and was removed from the stadium on a stretcher. She was taken to Bayfront Medical Center; her condition was not available.
The game was delayed 12 minutes before the start of the eighth because the stretcher had to go through the door behind home plate.
“Totally unfortunate,” Souza said. “I would never wish that upon anybody. Obviously, my intent was not to do that, but when something like that happens, I feel I’m called to love God and love others. People are just a little more important than that game right there. That woman’s health is way more important than my results in that game.”
Souza went into the stands and spoke with the woman as she was being placed on the stretcher.
“She was beat up pretty good,” Souza said. “It looked like it caught her right in the eye, which wasn’t a good sight. It’s just so unfortunate.
“I’ll be praying for her, hoping that she’s OK. She was able to talk to me and say a few things. Never a good sight to see.”
At the urging of Major League Baseball last December, the Rays extended the protective netting behind home plate across the photographers’ wells on both sides of the home plate to the dugouts.
There is a triangular cutout about four feet wide at the bottom that allows access from the wells to the stands. The triangle opening is angled away from the field, so it leaves maybe an inch or so for the ball to pass through.
Souza’s line drive foul ball apparently made it through the triangle on the first base side and struck the fan.
“I don’t even know the odds,” Souza said. “It’s got to be astronomical to get through there, and not only to get through there but to go straight for someone’s eye. It’s just unfortunate. It’s one thing in baseball that obviously is still dangerous to the game. There’s not a whole lot you can control there.”
Souza was still shaken when talking to the media after the Rays’ 1-0 loss. He said he plans on visiting the woman in the hospital or, at the very least, following up with her after he learns of her condition.
“That’s just the way Souza is. A pretty caring guy,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Obviously, I think anybody who hit the ball would have been a little rattled, shaken.”
The game was delayed momentarily during Souza’s at-bat until paramedics arrived. Players and coaches watched the activity in the stands before play resumed.
“It has an effect for sure,” Cash said. “You feel for the lady and her family. The last thing you want to do is come to the ball game as a player, as a coach, as a fan and see anybody get hurt.”
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