In 2019, six-year-old baseball fan Bryson Galaz was struck by an errant baseball at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California. The ball was thrown by pitcher Keynan Middleton — a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels — during warmups, and struck Galaz on the left side of his head after he had found his way close to the field on the third baseline.
“For three days, we didn’t know if my son was going to live or die,” Bryson’s mother, Beatrice Galaz, said in a statement. “We were relieved that he survived, but since that day he has struggled in school. He’s simply not the same.”
On Thursday, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, the young boy’s family announced that they are suing the Angels for negligence.
“The [stadium] presented risks to spectators at the [stadium] prior to the beginning of scheduled baseball game, including Plaintiff, beyond those inherent to the sport of baseball because it failed to provide any warnings to spectators of the risk of regarding any dangers to spectators,” reads the lawsuit.
According to the Times, Scott says that the MLB franchise “could have protected themselves and their fans simply by asking the players to throw parallel to the third-base line,” especially since the Angels had not extended the protective netting all the way down the foul lines.
“All they had to do was change their formation,” attorney Kyle Scott said. “It’s not unforeseeable that somebody is going to miss a ball, and it’s going to be thrown hard enough to hurt somebody.”
Per reports, the lawsuit is challenging the so-called “Baseball Rule,” which is a “long standing legal doctrine that the operators of baseball facilities have a limited duty to protect fans from the risk of being hit by a foul ball and that spectators assume that risk because it is an inherent danger associated with attending a ballgame.”
“This is not a foul ball,” Scott said. “It’s not a thrown bat. This is not a risk inherent to the sport of baseball. The game is not going on.”
While the young boy survived, the family says he has struggled since the accident, causing the family to seek “unspecified damages, including compensation for medical costs and loss of future earnings.”
The issue of fan safety at Major League Baseball ballparks has become a hot-topic issue over the past several years.
On August 25, 2018, Linda Goldbloom — a 79-year-old woman — was struck in the head by a foul ball at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. She died four days later from head injuries.
Her husband, Erwin Goldbloom, reached an agreement with the Dodgers organization for a wrongful-death lawsuit.
“My family’s goal is to never have this happen to anybody again,” Goldbloom said. “Nobody ever thinks it’s going to happen to them, and a lot of foul balls, you can easily get out of the way of. But this one wasn’t. I was sitting right next to her, and she was hit in the head.”
The Angels have said that “No parties have reached out to us regarding this lawsuit.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].
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Source: Dailywire
