A broken bat head struck a woman in the face on Friday night at Fenway Park. The Boston Police Department describes her injuries as “life threatening.”
“She was bleeding everywhere,” fan Alex Merlis told the Boston Herald. “That’s the most blood I’ve ever seen. Granted I probably have a pretty sheltered life. But that’s the most blood I’ve ever seen.”
The broken bat came on a Brett Lawrie ground out in the top of the second. Josh Reddick took his turn at the plate before authorities stopped the game midway through the second and rolled her across the field on a stretcher.
Overshadowed by the woman’s gruesome injury (and the debut of the first ambidextrous MLB pitcher in two decades for that matter), the Boston Red Sox defeated the Oakland A’s 4-2.
The book Death at the Ballpark, written by Robert Gorman and David Weeks, details that bat blows of various sorts have killed eight spectators in the history of the game at all levels. In 1970, a fourteen-year-old boy at Dodger Stadium became the only fan killed by a foul ball in Major League Baseball history. Trampling, deck collapses, falls, lightning strikes, and violence have killed far more fans than balls or bats.