Batter, Batter, Batter, Swing Batter but don’t let your bat hit me in the face

Who here loves baseball? Can’t say that I do but lately I have become a fan of the Atlanta Braves. Not sure if anyone saw the game tonight but in a Tivo re-play, I happened to see a guy swing at a pitch, make contact with the ball and I watched as the bat splintered into the sky, almost landing on Chipper Jones.

A discussion started about what would happen if the bat had flown into the audience and hit someone? Would that person be allowed to sue? What should be considered in a claim like that? Are you assuming the risk as a spectator by simply stepping into the stands? In a negligence claim, there are four elements: 1.) Duty 2.) Breach 3.) Causation 4.) Damages. If someone or an entity is considered “negligent”, they are failing to meet a standard of due care that any “reasonable and prudent” person would follow, therefore causing damages. To that end, who is the cause of the negligence when the bat flies into the stands and causes an injury to someone? Is it the manufacturer of the bat because the bat should have been able to withhold a strong contact with a ball? Is it the baseball player for not holding the bat in a way to prevent it from breaking? Is it the stadium for not providing full face masks to all spectators who come into the stadium? Is anyone thinking right now that this is what lawyers do, think of strange ways to find liability in a seemingly simple situation?

It isn’t clear cut, mainly because there isn’t anything stopping anyone from suing any of the people named above with this type of a claim. The court may decide it is a frivolous lawsuit but the suit could still be filed. On an aside, I have now learned that maple bats have the highest percentage of breaking. This is a very interesting article on that topic: http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-maplebats050808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

In a situation like this, the law and real life sometime get a bit too mixed up. The person that was hit by the bat wants something and technically the law seems to provide a method in getting that something (money) by using a negligence claim. However, real life needs to kick in. Everyone knows when you go to a baseball game, certainly you need to be aware of a lot of different events that might occur – the chance that a foul ball might fly into the stands, the guy with the glove next to you hits you in the face while reaching for the foul ball or maybe even the hot dog seller accidentally hits you in the face when he throws you the hot dog you ordered. Foreseeability is a strong factor in disproving a negligence claim and it certainly applies here.

My final thought is that you shouldn’t go to a baseball game if you can’t handle what happens there (or at least can learn how to duck when you see a piece of splintered wood headed your way). I am all for creating new bats that don’t have such a high chance of breaking but this is one attorney who won’t go to bat for lawsuits like this.