Photo of the protective netting system at Citi Field during a New York Mets game.

Image Credit: John Wisniewski (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Thanks to Rafael L. Espinal Jr., a city council member in New York City, the New York Mets will be adding three times the amount of protective netting at Citi Field. The change comes via a bill Espinal introduced to improve fan safety at Citi Field that will protect baseball fans from foul balls and other debris like broken bats. Espinal is calling on the New York Yankees to take the same protective measures by adding more protecting netting at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. 

Citi Field currently has the standard amount of protective netting behind home plate which ends at the beginning of each team’s dugout. That netting will now be extended to the end of each dugout. Further netting will extend to the ends of sections 126 (3rd baseline) and section 109 (1st baseline) and will stand 8 feet high.

Construction of the new protective netting is expected to be finished by July 14th for the beginning of the Colorado Rockies series. Major League Baseball recommended that teams improve the protective netting at each ballpark during the 2015 Major League Baseball season. With dimensions that vary from ballpark to ballpark, protective netting could look differently at each stadium. According to the New York Mets organization, the field will still be 97% visible with the addition of new netting down each base line.

 

Reference:

NYTimes.com 

  

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