Fan Killed after being struck in head by foul ball at dodger stadium this season

soxhop411

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A California woman died in August as a result of being hit in the head by a batted ball at Dodger Stadium, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report obtained by ESPN's "Outside the Lines" and details her daughter revealed to OTL in December.

Linda Goldbloom, a mother of three and grandmother of seven, died on Aug. 29. The coroner's report states the cause as "acute intracranial hemorrhage due to history of blunt force trauma" and states that the injury occurred when she was struck in the head with a baseball during the Aug. 25 game at Dodger Stadium.

Television coverage of the Padres-Dodgers game that night did not follow the flight of the ball or show where it ended up. No media outlet has reported what happened, but Goldbloom's family didn't keep it a secret and included this sentence in e-mail notifications on the day she died:
the accident happened in the top of the ninth inning, when San Diego's Franmil Reyes fouled back a 93 mph pitch from Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. The ball was hit a little to the first-base side of home plate, it sailed into the Loge Level -- just over the area protected by netting -- and it struck Goldbloom's head as she sat in section 106, row C, seat 5.

"Ushers came down and asked if she was all right, and she said no, then EMT came and rushed her to the hospital -- she threw up in the ambulance," her daughter, Jana Brody, told OTL.

Goldbloom, a longtime Dodger fan, was celebrating her recent 79th birthday and 59th wedding anniversary with her husband, Erwin, brother-in-law Michael and sister-in-law Eve.

Brody was 100 miles away and celebrating her own wedding anniversary when she got the news that her mother was going to have emergency brain surgery after midnight at L.A County-USC Medical Center.

For three days, Goldbloom was unresponsive, Brody said, except when a nurse saw her move one finger one time upon being asked if her name was Linda. Her eyes never opened at the hospital, and a ventilator kept her breathing.

On the night of Aug. 28, Goldbloom's whole family and a rabbi gathered around her to share memories and say goodbye before abiding by her wish that she not be kept alive by machines if doctors deemed it impossible to restore her quality of life.
After Goldbloom died the next morning, the Dodgers made no public comments about her death or what caused it. When OTL contacted the team Monday, more than five months later, a spokesman provided this statement:

"Mr. and Mrs. Goldbloom were great Dodgers fans who regularly attended games. We were deeply saddened by this tragic accident and the passing of Mrs. Goldbloom. The matter has been resolved between the Dodgers and the Goldbloom family. We cannot comment further on this matter."
In Major League Baseball's 150-year history, there were two previous reported instances of fans dying after being struck in the stands by balls that left the field of play, including one nearly half a century ago on a foul at Dodger Stadium:
  • Clarence Stagemyer, 32, died one day after he was hit in the head by a thrown ball on Sept. 29, 1943, at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Senators third-baseman Sherry Robertson fielded a grounder hit by Cleveland's Ken Keltner and threw it over the head of first baseman Mickey Vernon, and the ball struck Stagemyer in the first row of the stands.

  • Alan Fish, 14, died four days after he was hit in the head by a foul ball on May 16, 1970, at Dodger Stadium. L.A.'s Manny Mota was batting against San Francisco's Gaylord Perry when he hit a liner down the first-base line, near the dugout, that struck Fish two rows from the field
http://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/25926592/fan-struck-head-foul-ball-dodgers-game-died-blunt-force-injury


How the fuck did this only come out now?


Also, this is why netting is important (in a way) a ball that had enough force to go over the netting already in place was powerful enough to kill someone
 

Wake49

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At first I was 100% against having netting up along the base lines, but given how many people who sit in the good seats can’t seem to put down their phones and pay attention, it’s probably a good idea.
 

TheYaz67

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Yeah, seems like more netting is needed down the lines, and a bit higher. I know I can dodge/deflect a screaming line drive hit right at me if I had to in such seats, but I am middle aged and used to play ball. I often look around when at Nats games and see young kids/older folks/clueless people on phones and worry that they would not be able to get out of the way of a foul ball like that, and would have to rely on others to deflect that ball (or catch it) when sitting down the 1st base line at that ballpark.... according to the story this lady was not on her phone, I just don't think she knew how/when to get out of the way and/or read the flight of the ball, and you're not moving very fast at that age even when you want to...

Edit: Kind of screwed up that the Dodgers did not acknowledge the incident publicly until just now, given lots of people witnessed it, even if they are not "at fault"....
 

barbed wire Bob

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  • Alan Fish, 14, died four days after he was hit in the head by a foul ball on May 16, 1970, at Dodger Stadium. L.A.'s Manny Mota was batting against San Francisco's Gaylord Perry when he hit a liner down the first-base line, near the dugout, that struck Fish two rows from the field
Was I the only one who thought “pinch hitting for Pedro Borbon” when I read this?

Oh, and thoughts and prayers for Mrs. Goldbloom’s family.
 

charlieoscar

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We were at a Baltimore game one afternoon in 1995, well before game time with some food and filling out the score card, reading the team magazine. I happened to glance up and saw a baseball heading straight towards us, about 2-3 feet away. I managed to deflect the ball so it didn't hit my wife full in the face but if clipped the edge of her glasses, knocked them off and broke them. I complained to their "customer service" and we were directed to the first aid station but all they did was tape her glasses back together and offer her a soda.

This was after the strike and they had interns out on the field throwing balls in the stands. There was no one remotely close to us at the time, so it was thrown to us...without any warning. I actually talked to an attorney about this but was told, "Read the back of the ticket." If it was during the game or even batting practice, I could go along with that, but as far as I was concerned the club was responsible.
 

BoSox Rule

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At first I was 100% against having netting up along the base lines, but given how many people who sit in the good seats can’t seem to put down their phones and pay attention, it’s probably a good idea.
You think you or your kid are catching a ball off of J.D. Martinez’s bat at 116 mph even if you’re paying attention? Maybe with your teeth.
 

BernieRicoBoomer

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At first I was 100% against having netting up along the base lines, but given how many people who sit in the good seats can’t seem to put down their phones and pay attention, it’s probably a good idea.
I got hit at a minor league game a couple years ago. I was paying 100% attention and saw the ball coming the entire way...I simply could not get out of the way in time. I am all for it, no matter what anyone seems to be doing these days.
 

sittingstill

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I got hit at a minor league game a couple years ago. I was paying 100% attention and saw the ball coming the entire way...I simply could not get out of the way in time.
I've been hit while shooting at both third base (Portland) and first base (back field at JetBlue) and completely agree with the above. In Portland I literally couldn't move--backed into a corner--but my brain essentially just processed "not going to hit my face, not going to hit the camera" before the ball hit me in the stomach. It was a sharp grounder that hit the ground once near the batter's box and then rose up, traveling in a pretty straight line. The spring ball was a line drive with some curve toward me and I was unable to complete calculating the physics involved (if I moved left, was I moving out of the path, or was it curving enough that I would move into it?) in time--all I managed to do was shift my weight off my right leg before it caught me in the shin. (It'll be two years as of St. Patrick's Day, so I'm guessing the scar is permanent.) I see first and third base coaches get hit. Not paying attention doesn't help matters, and I'll have to grant that those of you with the years in baseball and the awesome reflexes regardless of age would in fact manage to get out of the way, or maybe just break a finger or wrist deflecting a ball. But that's in no way the whole story.
 

Red Averages

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At first I was 100% against having netting up along the base lines, but given how many people who sit in the good seats can’t seem to put down their phones and pay attention, it’s probably a good idea.
Ah yes, the classic victim blaming - especially on a story that features a 79 year old. Ever have a ball come at you over 100 mph when you have less than 2 seconds to react while sitting and having less than 3 feet to move in any one direction?

I was sitting in the Pavilion club at Fenway and there was a foul ball hit right at me, my wife and two parents. The ball was sliced. My father and wife ducked, my mother didn't. Somehow my brain processed this in the 2 seconds, so I threw my hand in front of the ball at the last second (and my mother's face). Thankfully it redirected... and immediately made a LOUD bang noise behind us. Terrified I turned around and saw an 8 year old boy and his mother. The ball hit the empty chair next to this boy's face and was hit with such force that it bounced ~20 feet away. Eventually someone retrieved it and gave it to the boy as a souvenir. No one (aside from my hand), but that is just one example of a ball that could have killed multiple people.
 

Myt1

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Ah yes, the classic victim blaming - especially on a story that features a 79 year old. Ever have a ball come at you over 100 mph when you have less than 2 seconds to react while sitting and having less than 3 feet to move in any one direction?

I was sitting in the Pavilion club at Fenway and there was a foul ball hit right at me, my wife and two parents. The ball was sliced. My father and wife ducked, my mother didn't. Somehow my brain processed this in the 2 seconds, so I threw my hand in front of the ball at the last second (and my mother's face). Thankfully it redirected... and immediately made a LOUD bang noise behind us. Terrified I turned around and saw an 8 year old boy and his mother. The ball hit the empty chair next to this boy's face and was hit with such force that it bounced ~20 feet away. Eventually someone retrieved it and gave it to the boy as a souvenir. No one (aside from my hand), but that is just one example of a ball that could have killed multiple people.
I was sitting on the third base line at Camden about 12 years ago. Father with his 6 year old daughter sitting in front of us, leaned back to talk to us a bit. Absolutely screaming like drive foul. He saw my and my brother’s eyes widen and just reacted, basically karate chopping the ball at the last second to deflect it past his daughter. It literally would have killed her in front of us.
 
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charlieoscar

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Many years ago I was at a game at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto late in the season on a rainy day, sitting down the right field line past the foul pole when Willie Upshaw crushed a foul line drive right at me in the first or second inning. Just about everyone was under umbrellas and didn't try for the ball. I tried to step back to cushion the catch but could not because the seating in that area was simply long planks of aluminum and the ball caught me flush on the end of my thumb. Someone in back of me got the ball and I stayed there into extra innings as they decided they were going to complete the game. The next morning I found a doctor and ended up with a thumb splint that I wore while recovering from a fracture. Several years later I encountered Upshaw in the dugout of the Norwich Navigators; he found the story amusing.

I don't like nets because I like to photograph game action, and a net wouldn't have helped in this case, but I was alert more than 300 feet from home plate and still got injured. Baseball games can be dangerous for fans. I saw an elderly woman get hit by a foul line drive at an Alexandria Dukes game and she was taken away by ambulance. The front row of the stands at that point was about 12 feet up in the air and the foul territory was pretty large. I saw a woman with an infant three or four rows in back of the top end of the dugout, turned, talking with another person, when a line drive caught the baby on the side of the head. A net would have prevented that, I think, but I'm not sure if the woman could have reacted quickly enough if she had been paying attention as things were.

Even at my age, I still have quick reflexes and react to the crack of the bat but you do slow down, some quicker than others, and you have to put up with all the people who find it necessary to get up during play to go after food. concessions, restroom breaks, or simply just stand.
 

joe dokes

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At first I was 100% against having netting up along the base lines, but given how many people who sit in the good seats can’t seem to put down their phones and pay attention, it’s probably a good idea.
IIRC, Herb Score was calling Domino's when he got hit. Bryce Florie was more of a Papa John's fan. And dont get me started on Wilbur Wood and David Wells. You couldn't get the phones out of their meaty paws.
 

Wake49

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Ah yes, the classic victim blaming - especially on a story that features a 79 year old. Ever have a ball come at you over 100 mph when you have less than 2 seconds to react while sitting and having less than 3 feet to move in any one direction?
I wasn’t speaking about the 79yo, it was more of a general statement.
 

ThePrideofShiner

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My uncle got hit by a line drive off the bat of John Hale during batting practice at a game at the Kingdome in 1978.

He was standing in the aisle talking to his son, someone yelled watch out, he looked up to a ball hitting him in the jaw.

Reggie Jackson and a trainer rushed to him, while Sparky Lyle comforted the family.

He was taken to the hospital and ended up only losing a few teeth. The Mariners gave them tickets in the old President's box the next day. They also let him into the clubhouse to meet the Mariners. Being a Yankees fan, he convinced them to let him meet the Yankees instead.

All that said, I find it terrifying to sit in the lower level on the lines.
 

Sad Sam Jones

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I was sitting 3rd row in the section just before the third base dugout at a minor league game a few years ago. Baseballs are hard enough to react to and predict their trajectory. Bats are something else entirely. I'd like to say it was my acute awareness and lightning quick reflexes that kept me from getting hurt, but it was simple luck that I was five feet outside the bat's path. The best I could have done was to shield my head. Fortunately, those seats are now behind netting.

It's not unusual to see major league infielders go into self-defense mode on wicked grounders. They're standing about 100 feet away and focused intently on what's happening right in front of them, with reflexes and equipment the rest of us don't possess. If fans are sitting that close to the plate, they need something more than just a better attention span to protect them.

*
 

mauidano

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What frightens me most is the pitchers getting hit by line drives. Seems like every year someone gets hit in the head. Pure luck no one has been killed on the mound.
 

pedro1918

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IIRC, Herb Score was calling Domino's when he got hit. Bryce Florie was more of a Papa John's fan. And dont get me started on Wilbur Wood and David Wells. You couldn't get the phones out of their meaty paws.
I'm pretty sure Mike Mussina was watching the Seinfeld finale when he took a line drive in the face from Sandy Alomar.
 

BigJimEd

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richgedman'sghost

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Don't act like a complete ahole when you get called out for a moronic and ignorant post. Several years ago before the netting was put into place at hockey games, I was sitting about 5 rows behind the goalie. The puck was shot from the point at what seemed like 100 mph. The goalie was just able to slightly deflect it but it still hit me in the arm. I had a bruise for a few weeks after that. @Wake49
 

terrynever

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Saw Dick Allen crush a foul line drive down the left field line at Connie Mack Stadium in 1964. Smashed the wooden seat behind me, breaking a wood slat into splinters. I wanted no part of that ball as it came at me. Nobody got hurt, thankfully.
 

staz

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I remain in the minority on this, but I agree that taking in a live game should be pure pleasure - a good day - not one that results in real injury.

I just wish there were some way to protect fans who desire such protection, while providing areas for those of us who want to sit as close to the action as possible without any barrier between us and the game.
 

NJ_Sox_Fan

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I despise the nets. It’s terrible that people get hurt, but I’m not paying hundreds of dollars to sit behind that stupid screen. Hopefully they can come up with something where people can be safe, and those who want to sit in a prime location without obstructions can.