The new net behind the plate

[OCST]

Actually, they said they've offered season ticket holders the chance to preview the net and nearly 40 have taken advantage of this chance, and a few have asked to be reseated, pending how it looks during a game. There seem to be seats past the dugouts available for these folks.

Some anecdotal info from players and management (Pedroia got hit in the eye by a bad hop in 2002) that don't really apply but do reinforce that getting hit by a ball can hurt.

This needed reinforcement?

Mike Coolbaugh, Matt Clement, Bryce Florie, and a bunch of other guys would love to chat.

 

[kevlog]

Stephen King chimes in..... http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2016/04/11/stephen-king-fenway-park-netting/

 

[soxhop411]

Here are some pictures of the new netting...

 

[moondog80]

Isn't this all just CYA? Not sure a few signs telling everyone to pay attention will be be enough to prevent the lawsuit when some guy gets clonked while texting his vote of which song to play in the 5th inning, or whatever it is that we are encouraged to do with our phones.

 

[B H Kim]

Well, it looks, at least, like they were smart enough to make the guy-wires black. Yesterday, I got to see the new netting at Nationals Park for the first time. Here's the view from my seats. The netting itself wasn't a problem, but the silver guy-wires are perfectly positioned to run right across my view of the plate.

 

[BoSoxLady]

Could be worse but the cables are in my direct line of vision. Sigh....

 

[whatittakes]

This is a pure outsider's perspective, since I'm way too fat to enjoy a game at Fenway (I'm working on it but at the moment I'm pretty much 2 Pablo Sandovals), but it seems to me that I'd rather have that net and not need it, than need it and not have it.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

It was quite annoying from BSL's seats and from mine in section 25. Anyone in the back half of the loge boxes or first half of the grandstand trying to take pictures of, say, the pitcher, will have a line through him from the support wires.

1 ball hit the extended netting today. There were three of those "up the old net to the pressbox area and STRAIGHT down on someone's head in sections behind home plate", though.

 

[PseuFighter]

Didn't really bother me, midway up the loge box behind the Sox on deck circle. If we were maybe another two rows up, the thick black wire would have been directly in line with the pitcher's head, and that probably would've sucked. Also, plenty of really hard hit foul balls all over the place, but maybe one that hit the new net (as said above). Seems more likely some hot dog vendor is going to drop a big tin case on a fan at this point. Not sure what happens then.

 

[SydneySox]

So, Peter/Cheri, would you be in favour maybe of actually raising the netting?

 

[Jordu]

I'm in LF grandstand, behind 3B. Netting is no problem at all, but the guy wires -- Jesus, what a mess. I'm with you, BoSox lady. It's like a circus trapeze, and one guy wire extends almost all the way to left field wall.

Anyone here an expert on rigging? Does it have to be this bad?

 

[Max Power]

As expected, it's pretty bad from my seats. The netting is right in my view of the batter's box and the wires are completely ridiculous.

Last year's view...

This year...

 

[brandonchristensen]

It's going to be like reflections on a tv, they're only annoying when you're thinking about it.

 

[DJnVa]

Yeah, that doesn't look "pretty bad" to me.

Hugs and handpounds.

 

[Laser Show]

Yea I was sitting in grandstand 19 behind home plate today and barely noticed.

 

[Moviegoer]

Nice picture. You see that pillar all the way on the left? I sat directly behind that for a game. You had to lean to the left to see the pitcher. Then when he threw the ball you had to quickly shift to lean to the right to see the batter swing. If he hit it, you had to go back to the left to see the play on anything to the left of the second baseman, which you had to be able to asses at the crack of the bat because man do you have to whip back fast if you wanted to see it.
That was just one game though. More often I sat in the family section. You see that pillar second from the right? More than once I had a seat behind that where it split the field right in two. I wouldn't see Pedey the entire game.

 

[brandonchristensen]

Nice picture. You see that pillar all the way on the left? I sat directly behind that for a game. You had to lean to the left to see the pitcher. Then when he threw the ball you had to quickly shift to lean to the right to see the batter swing. If he hit it, you had to go back to the left to see the play on anything to the left of the second baseman, which you had to be able to asses at the crack of the bat because man do you have to whip back fast if you wanted to see it.
That was just one game though. More often I sat in the family section. You see that pillar second from the right? More than once I had a seat behind that where it split the field right in two. I wouldn't see Pedey the entire game.

If you're pretty far back it's unlikely you'll ever see Pedey.

 

[Sampo Gida]

It seems not all teams are using the netting per MLB guidelines. I didn't see any in Yankee stadium while watching on TV. Of course, those seats are always empty, or so it seems.

Today you can pretty much know what seat you are getting before you buy. If you don't want to sit behind the net, sit somewhere else or stay home and watch on TV. I never sit in the sections affected, except a few times 50 years ago when attendance was like 10K in cold misty conditions, which was the norm in those days, and you could sit wherever you wanted. For those who are used to sitting there w/o the net like Stephen King, I feel your pain, but I can't quite reach you.

I do wish they had considered other alternatives which I have mentioned before, but I guess there are good reasons for choosing the net. I guess so long as the seats get filled at the desired price, the net will stay

 

[Buffalo Head]

The reason for the cables is to support the crosses so you can hang yourself on them.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

At Safeco, the net this year looks not a bit larger than it did last year.

Then again, our M's scored 5 runs in 3 games against the A's this weekend, so it's not like we'd miss a lot of action at the plate if they did enlarge the net.

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

As expected, it's pretty bad from my seats. The netting is right in my view of the batter's box and the wires are completely ridiculous.

Last year's view...

This year...

This was sarcasm, right?

 

[Sampo Gida]

This was sarcasm, right?

Click on it and scroll to the left so that you can see homeplate and its obviously not. That seat being pretty far up the line in RF sees most of the field w/o the net since the net only goes up to the Red Sox dugout. Point being it affects far more people than I thought

 

[Papelbon's Poutine]

Oh, I clicked on it. And I zoomed in and scrolled and whatever else I could do. And I think it's pretty funny how much people are complaining, especially from that seat. If you're sitting there and honestly complaining about your view being altered - which is completely asinine to begin with because it's not affecting your view in the slightest - then bottom line, you're an ass hole.

Sorry. But yeah, you're looking for something to complain about. If you're in the third row, sure I can see the complaint, but I still think it's whining. But from there? No. It's not impacting your view and if you're going to say that you'd rather risk having a sawed off bat impale a woman or a foul ball strike a child so you don't have that level of impact on you sight line then, yeah, gfy. There is no one being "affected" by that.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Yea I was sitting in grandstand 19 behind home plate today and barely noticed.

Well nothing has changed behind the plate.

I think they should either just get a megatarp over all the fans, or put bubblewrap on the ball so everyone is safe.

 

[smastroyin]

The netting is 0-1 and caused David Price and Craig Kimbrel to pitch like chumps and got David Ortiz to fail in the worst way possible during a David Ortiz moment.

 

[fenwaypaul]

My view (iPhone photo) from sec 26 row 8 yesterday. The thicker top edge of the net was about letter-high on left-handed batters. I only noticed it if I thought about it, though, and it didn't bother me at all.

 

[Max Power]

Oh, I clicked on it. And I zoomed in and scrolled and whatever else I could do. And I think it's pretty funny how much people are complaining, especially from that seat. If you're sitting there and honestly complaining about your view being altered - which is completely asinine to begin with because it's not affecting your view in the slightest - then bottom line, you're an ass hole.

Sorry. But yeah, you're looking for something to complain about. If you're in the third row, sure I can see the complaint, but I still think it's whining. But from there? No. It's not impacting your view and if you're going to say that you'd rather risk having a sawed off bat impale a woman or a foul ball strike a child so you don't have that level of impact on you sight line then, yeah, gfy. There is no one being "affected" by that.

Not many people know this, but attendance at Red Sox games is not compulsory and you are not randomly assigned a seat when you arrive. If you're concerned about your kid getting hit with a ball, then don't sit in a section where that can happen. Instead of allowing someone to assess the risk like a responsible adult, just like they did when they decided to leave the house to go to the game or decided to spend $5.50 on a hot dog, the team has implemented a solution for them. That solution to protect a couple hundred seats clearly affects about a third of the ballpark. Reasonable people can disagree about how big a problem it is (and unreasonable people can be name-calling shitheads), but my clear view from the last 17 years has been made worse.

 

[BoSoxLady]

Selfishly Syd, I'd love to see the netting raised however, the guy-wire will be in someone's line of vision. The wires are dark and the double wires where the old netting meets the new are horrendous. It's impossible to get clear pictures of the batter and the pitcher's chest has a line through it. The netting isn't bad at all to their credit.

When you look toward the plate and LF from my seats, all you see are guy-wires. The view is horrific.

 

[smastroyin]

Is it at all possible to cut back on the condescending BS on this topic? I mean, I get it, even Silverman felt the need to go there. But man, this thread is everything wrong with SoSH, you guys aren't even funny.

A primer:
- People having decent seats at Fenway aren't somehow subject to extra ridicule from those who don't go to games, and especially not the "I don't see what you're complaining about you whiner" posts.
- Nobody cares about nanny state analogies.
- In the context of having a discussion about netting, nobody cares about your obstructed view hardships (but, here's a hint on the difference - most of those columns were there in 1912) or if you think people should count their lucky stars they even get to go to games. We may as well never have a discussion about game experience if we are going to be inundated with "I had to talk uphill both ways" type posts.

 

[DJnVa]

Not many people know this, but attendance at Red Sox games is not compulsory and you are not randomly assigned a seat when you arrive. If you're concerned about your kid getting hit with a ball, then don't sit in a section where that can happen.

So this means you don't need to sit in that seat and complain right? You can pick some other seat.

 

[Max Power]

I've already asked my season ticket account rep for a move, so I'm well ahead of you.

 

[biollante]

I liked it when there was no netting at all. Kept you on your toes. This was before cellphones, blistering loud music between innings and expensive beer, back when the world made more sense.

 

[Ale Xander]

The netting is fine, the guy-wire or whatever is called is horrible, especially if you're 2 , 4 ,or 6 (Field, Loge, or GS) sections towards the outfield such that it sits right in your view of the infield. The vertical one is worse than the horizontal one.

I don't see the point of paying for premium seats anymore for 4x the price when you can just sit in the bleachers. I wish I could afford the HPP or EMC seats so you're actually on top of it of the field and the wires aren't messing up your vision. Not to mention, many of us aren't in 1912 proportions any more, so leaning or whatever isn't possible.

With "preciseseating" it was easy to choose seats to mind the poles, but the guywires make it exponentially more difficult to ascertain.

I'm on the side of things that it is the fans that pay attention that should be catered to, not the ones that don't.

 

[amh03]

Another voice on the side of hating the cables. The net doesn't bother me...you do get used to it and the eye, as well as a camera lens adjusts.

The cables, though...ugh! They're so thick and break up the view lines in such a way that they're very distracting. And taking any decent photos with those in view...forget about it.

I would have thought something could have been designed to minimize that distraction...the Sox have made some amazing enhancements to the Park which have greatly improved the customer experience. This, on the other hand, is an epic fail, imho.

 

[joeflah]

Pussification: whining incessantly about "others" being protected right up to the moment when you or one of yours takes a baseball between your eyes.

 

[effectivelywild]

At this point, isn't it basically two different sides basically repeating the same lines over and over? "I hate the netting, it impedes my vision and people should just pay attention, no one forces you to go to a game." vs. "It makes things safer for everyone, no one forces you to sit there." I'm all for debate and discussion, but the bottom line is that there's a better chance the Sandoval wins the MVP this year than the netting comes down.

 

[uncannymanny]

I'm for the netting, but the guy wires are really terribly done and those folks have a legitimate gripe on that point. I'm going to both games this weekend in different seats, Saturday behind home plate and Sunday on the home plate side behind the dugout. I think Sunday will be interesting since the vertical wire may be somewhere around the batter from where we are. I'll post pictures of that since it's a pretty great location that may be affected by the non-netting rigging.

 

[JimBoSox9]

Pussification: whining incessantly about "others" being protected right up to the moment when you or one of yours takes a baseball between your eyes.

Cool take, bro. Try harder.

 

[Devizier]

The reason for the cables is to support the crosses so you can hang yourself on them.

i laffed.

 

[EastCoasterOutWest]

Not many people know this, but attendance at Red Sox games is not compulsory and you are not randomly assigned a seat when you arrive. If you're concerned about your kid getting hit with a ball, then don't sit in a section where that can happen. Instead of allowing someone to assess the risk like a responsible adult, just like they did when they decided to leave the house to go to the game or decided to spend $5.50 on a hot dog, the team has implemented a solution for them. That solution to protect a couple hundred seats clearly affects about a third of the ballpark. Reasonable people can disagree about how big a problem it is (and unreasonable people can be name-calling shitheads), but my clear view from the last 17 years has been made worse.

You can get hit by a ball from quite a few seats. What you're basically saying is don't go to baseball games. It's a terrible argument that you should drop.

Were you not able to enjoy the game at all because of the guy wire? Did you go expecting to hate it and you fulfilled your expectation? Did it make it so you couldn't follow the action?

You're already looking at changing your seats, so where are you expecting to move?

I'd expect the view to be worse if you're forced to look down the length of the netting and get a lot more net in your view. One thing to remember is that this was not an enhancement to improve enjoyment of the game, so it can't be judged with the same measure as something like adding the Monster seats or a better beer selection.

 

[Max Power]

You can get hit by a ball from quite a few seats. What you're basically saying is don't go to baseball games. It's a terrible argument that you should drop.

Will you no longer go to games unless there's a net covering every single seat? The guy in the red seat got hit by a ball 70 years ago, put up a net in front of the bleachers!!!

Were you not able to enjoy the game at all because of the guy wire? Did you go expecting to hate it and you fulfilled your expectation? Did it make it so you couldn't follow the action?

I was not able to enjoy the game because of Kimbrell and a sick 13 month old on my lap.

I went in expecting there to be some netting in front of the batter and found gigantic wires across my entire field of view, from home plate down past the foul pole. If "able to follow" the action is the single criterion you use for choosing a seat at the park, we have nothing further to discuss.

You're already looking at changing your seats, so where are you expecting to move?

Maybe somewhere lower so the wire isn't in a direct line from the pitcher to the batter. But you're right, there are very few seats in the park where you don't have a horizontal wire in your view now.

I'd expect the view to be worse if you're forced to look down the length of the netting and get a lot more net in your view. One thing to remember is that this was not an enhancement to improve enjoyment of the game, so it can't be judged with the same measure as something like adding the Monster seats or a better beer selection.

So it was put in to make the game less enjoyable? Then it's been wildly successful.

 

[geoduck no quahog]

Dupont makes a Kevlar Cable that's more than double the strength of steel and, if I recall correctly, is a fraction of the diameter that would be needed when replacing those braided steel guy lines.

Any engineers here? I'd imagine that your typical baseball team could afford a few hundred feet of this stuff if it works.

 

[Devizier]

Dupont makes a Kevlar Cable that's more than double the strength of steel and, if I recall correctly, is a fraction of the diameter that would be needed when replacing those braided steel guy lines.

Not an engineer, but I believe that's what they use to support antenna towers.

Not sure it is actually less "visible" than steel, though.

 

[geoduck no quahog]

Well the gauge would theoretically be substantially smaller (I'm talking about the guy wires, not the netting mesh).

I'd bet anything that there's material out there that could help solve the thick guy wire issue that people are talking about. Maybe sky hooks.

 

[Buffalo Head]

I was not able to enjoy the game because of Kimbrell and a sick 13 month old on my lap.

So not only are you miserable and entitled, you're also a shitty parent for dragging a sick infant to a baseball game. GJGE

 

[ookami7m]

At this point does this thread serve any purpose? It's polarized into two camps with no new actual information - just embattled opinions.

 

[geoduck no quahog]

Not if we're discussing the modulus of elasticity, coefficient of linear expansion, elastic extension, thermal expansion and dynamic bend fatigue in kevlar threads...

(as opposed to other threads)

Edit: I once dated a girl with dynamic bend fatigue

 

[Max Power]

At this point does this thread serve any purpose? It's polarized into two camps with no new actual information - just embattled opinions.

It's letting assholes vent their jealousy at season ticket holders who dare complain about anything that they spend thousands of dollars a year on. So there's that.

 

[mauidano]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2016/04/15/baseball-fan-hit-foul-ball-taken-off-stretcher-rays-game-steven-souza-tropicana-field/83108022/

 

[CarolinaBeerGuy]

Why in the hell would there be a small gap in the net?