The news went viral that a young girl was hit in the face twice at the Yankees stadium. It happened the third time during the season; a fan got struck by either a foul ball or a shattered bat during the game. From the beginning of the baseball, the foul balls are shot into the stands like missiles. However, a bizarre incident happened on August 17, 1957, during a match in Philadelphia against the New York Giants.
The incident
Richie Ashburn, a Hall of Famer, hit a foul ball straight to the stands, and it struck right in the face of Alice Roth, which end up breaking her nose. Meanwhile, the game was left on hold for providing medical assistance to Roth. However, the game was resumed as she was being carried away on the stretcher. Then, again Ashburn fouled off the very first pitch thrown at him, and it again got stuck on Roth as she was carried in the stretcher. The effect of the second foul ball resulted in a broken bone in Roth’s knee.
Who was Alice Roth?
Alice Roth was the wife of a sports editor of The Philadelphia Bulletin. She was at the games with her two grandsons. She was severely injured at the games, and there was blood everywhere around seats in the stands.
How Phillie’s treated the family of the patient?
Phillies gave the entire family of the injured a royal treatment and also invited the kids to the clubhouse. They offered free tickets along with autographed baseball to the kids and the family members of the wounded.
Ashburn also visited Roth in the hospital and became friends with her. Therefore, Roth chose to sit in the left-field bleachers and surely out of any harm. Eventually, Roth’s son became the batboy of Phillies’.
The incident in the following year
On September 21, 1958, Ted Williams injured a fan. He was furious and disgusted for taking a called third strike in the third inning. He flung his bat towards the Red Sox dugout, which went straight to the stands and struck Mrs. Gladys Heffernan on the left side of her forehead.
Mrs. Gladys was an elderly housekeeper of the Red Sox’s general manager. Williams was afraid that the person might lose her life because of his anger; however, she smiled at him and comforted with her words. Mrs. Gladys told him to relax everything will be alright, and she also said she knows that it was an honest mistake, nothing intentional. She was completely cured after the injury. William sent her a $500 diamond watch as a Christmas present and said that she was like a real little queen.
Winding up
After what happened to Mrs. Roth at the Yankees Stadium, there was a considerable demand to shut the Major League Baseball. However, nothing stopped at all; just the netting was installed in the stadiums that no one gets hurt anymore.
