The baseball playoffs are in full swing, and in Missouri, for the first time since 1985, fans are rooting on both the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals. In 2014, 73,739,622 Americans attended a Major League Baseball game, with average attendance per game of 30,346. This is a slight decrease from 2013, but is the 7th highest attendance total in the sport’s history.

According to a recent study by Bloomberg, there were an estimated 1,756 fan injuries sustained at MLB baseball stadiums in 2013, which is an average of .72 injuries per game played (81 games per stadium by 30 stadiums). The number of fan injuries eclipses the number of players who were hit by a pitch in 2013, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Injuries may include bumps and bruises, or in serious cases, even death.

The main risks inherent in watching a MLB game are foul balls and bats entering into the seats. Children are most at risk, either due to inattention or the inability to move fast enough to avoid the foul ball or bat. Other risks include falling in the stadium and items thrown by team mascots, as the Royals learned the hard way.

Earlier this year, the Missouri Supreme Court held that flying hot dogs are not part of the assumed risk a fan takes on when attending a baseball game. In 2009, John Coomer claimed he was seriously injured as the Kansas City Royals mascot, Sluggerrr, tossed a hot dog in his direction. Coomer admittedly was not paying attention and was struck in the left eye, allegedly suffering a detached retina and the development of traumatic cataracts. The lawsuit involved the legal doctrine of “primary assumption of risk,” which operates to limit a defendant’s liability because the plaintiff assumed a certain level of risk when partaking in an activity. In terms of baseball games, spectators are considered to assume a level of risk by attending the game. Flying baseballs and baseball bats are a possibility at virtually any seat in the stands, and fans should understand that this is a risk when they attend.

Major League Baseball requires each individual team to construct adequate backstops and to display warning signs at various places throughout the ballpark. Teams rely upon the “Baseball Rule”, which has been adopted by Missouri state courts, to protect themselves from fan injuries. As long as teams screen the most dangerous areas of the ballpark (such as directly behind home plate), they are not liable for injuries that occur in other parts of the stadium. The risk of being hit by a foul ball is considered “open and obvious” to all fans.

The Missouri Supreme Court’s decision is one of many around the country which may signal a shift away from the pure application of the “Baseball Rule” and could have a lasting effect on fan injuries at baseball games and other sporting events. If you are injured at a sporting event, we recommend that you file an incident report as soon as possible. Get a copy of the report to keep. You should also seek medical treatment if needed and make sure your medical provider records the details of the injury.

Please contact us today if you have questions about an injury sustained while watching a sporting event.