Maple Weapons?

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AoeAMrS5MoW15gPv0Ba94kgRvLYF?slug=jp-bats052908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Above is a recent story of a fan who has hit with a broken portion of a maple bat. From this story questions have been asked about how we can make ballparks safer. Should maple bats be banned? Should stadiums go to more precautions to protect fans? I have a real simple solution...

PAY ATTENTION. I am sorry but this sounds like another incident of a fan that was simply not paying attention during a ballgame. Fans have to recognize the risks that they are in with the seats that they select. The closer to the action you choose to sit, the more on your toes you have to be. Baseball gives plenty of time between innings for you to find other things to do. Stadiums are plastered with signs of "beware of objects leaving the field of play" and I assume fans can read, so fans have to recognize that when you are sitting behind the dugout you are putting yourself at risk. The speed at which a broken bat travels should give fans, at the very least, time to shield themselves. Unless of course they were caught up in other things. 90% of fans are normally able to dodge objects, it seems as though if action was taken you'd be punishing either the heavy majority of fans and organizations or the players themselves. Fans need to recognize their position on the field and what could potentially happen... just ask Steve Bartman.

A popular solution to this issue is ban maple bats, it's clear, it's concise, and it's reasonable. Well 2 out of 3 ain't bad. The fact is that players prefer maple bats or else they wouldn't have become as popular as they are. Players are under the impression that maple bats help performance and just that psychological edge could help hitters. It is true that maple will much more likely break than ash causing it to be more of a hazzard, but also they are more durable. While when cracked, maple are almost certain to break, ash bats have a higher probability of cracking. Send in the tree huggers because all more ash bats are going to do is require more wood. Also another advantage to maple to hitters is they don't have to buy so many new bats, which is probably another reason why the game is transitioning to them. It just seems as though you are punishing players for something that fans are adequately warned about.

Another solution may be creating more foul ground or having netting stretch out further. But then all you are accomplishing is forcing teams to put money towards stadium renovations and probably still have fans complaining on how they want to feel "closer to the action".

It would have been nice to see Dodgers have the decency to help her out with her medical bills. While it was not their responsibility, it would have been an act of good will. In light of this whole situation, by avoiding paying the bills the Dodgers have come off as the villians of the situation and I believe have just given more attention to the situation.

In all, I think the best solution is to recognize the risk and keep making fans blantantly aware of the risks they are in.