2026 MLBPA and OnRise Outreach: Player Mental Health
Foul Ball Safety Now (FBSN) is expanding its advocacy to confront not only the physical risks faced by fans, but also the overlooked psychological toll those risks impose on players and coaches. The following letters, addressed to the Major League Baseball Players Association(MLBPA) and OnRise (a mental health and performance organization that partners with the union to provide comprehensive support to players) represent a direct call to acknowledge and address the mental burden associated with foul ball and bat incidents. Every year, preventable, life-altering injuries to unsuspecting fans persist, reinforcing a system in which players must perform under the constant, often unspoken fear of causing harm. FBSN believes athletes deserve the opportunity to pursue their careers free from this underlying anxiety, and that meaningful collaboration is urgently needed to create the safest and a more responsible future for everyone connected to the game.
Letter sent to OnRise in April 2026
Dear Dr. Quigley and OnRise team,
My name is Jordan Skopp, founder of the advocacy campaign Foul Ball Safety Now. I wanted to follow up on my previous note and reiterate my request to connect.
Over the past several months, I have been spending hours speaking directly with baseball insiders. From these conversations, we have received overwhelming evidence about the suffering in silence caused by fan injuries in baseball. Not only to the injured fans but also to the players. It is a lived, ongoing psychological burden that often goes unacknowledged.
As we go into the Spring, unfortunately more bad news have reached us. Just a couple of weeks ago, we received news of an incident in Seattle where a teenager was hit in the back of the head. Incidents like this do not happen in isolation, they reverberate through teams, clubs, dugouts, and across the broader baseball community.
We have also just received very graphic photos of a woman who was hit in the face by a foul ball at Dodgers stadium about a year ago. She was taken out on a gurney, and after spending thousands of dollars in medical care, a year later she has not fully recovered, with marks that are still visible on her face. These are the kinds of moments that players carry with them, whether or not they are ever publicly discussed.
This is where your role becomes critical.
This is your mandate. Ensuring that players’ mental health is sound requires confronting not only internal pressures, but also the external realities that weigh on them. Especially when those realities involve preventable harm to fans. Yet you are contracting with an organization (MLBPA) that has not consistently placed players at the center of its priorities on this issue. I realize this may be something that your organization has not seen prior, and it may lead you to a situation of conflict where you may be biting off more than you can chew.
From where we stand, in 2026 we’re still in the Dark Ages when it comes to acknowledging and addressing the full scope of this problem.
At Foul Ball Safety Now, we believe the time has come for a decisive campaign. We have gathered enough information, testimony, and evidence to call for a National Time Out. It will be an opportunity for all stakeholders to reflect, reassess, and commit to meaningful action that protects both fans and the mental wellbeing of players across the country.
We are asking you to join us in that call.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you directly and explore how OnRise can help lead on an issue that sits squarely within your mission.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Jordan Skopp
Founder, Foul Ball Safety Now
Letter sent to MLBPA in March 2026
The time has come for the Major League Baseball Players Association to finally recognize their connection to the legacy of baseball fans injured by foul balls and bats entering the stands.
Every year, there will continue to be life-altering injuries to the most innocent, unsuspecting fans. Our responsibility as a baseball civilized society is to finally take proper measures to safeguard all fans from preventable injuries inside and outside professional ballparks and stadiums.
Players need to have the opportunity to perform their life-long passion free of the psychological burden always right beneath the surface or present when a ball or bat leaves the field and threatens fan safety.
MLBPA is familiar with this subject, as news reports indicate that the matter of extended netting to protect fans has been raised repeatedly by the union in past CBA negotiations. But those discussions have failed to deliver any solutions for fan safety, and the threat remains ongoing to this day as serious fan injuries continue to happen. Dangerous balls and bats are entering the seating areas at both the MLB and PDL levels, as evidenced most recently during Game 2 of ALDS playoffs when a broken bat flew into the stands in Seattle. That is unacceptable.
Let’s all put our heads together and bring in the most talented engineers, architects, and designers from every zip code in our country to address our modern-day needs of providing a safe experience for all fans.
We’re happy to sit down with you and share all of our findings on fan injuries throughout MLB and minor league baseball as well, with its much larger rank and file. We know of two children who were critically injured by foul balls in 2023 in minor league ballparks in Hickory, NC and Peoria, IL. We also know of a serious 2023 incident in which a woman sustained a traumatic brain injury while awaiting entry to the park.
These incidents are a symptom of the larger problem with baseball culture. It’s up to us all to fix that now.
The future of baseball fan safety can be as bright as the games can be. We can all get there together.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
Jordan Skopp
Founder, Foul Ball Safety Now
Letter sent to OnRise in March 2026
I’m Jordan Skopp and I was very interested to learn about your organization’s existence this week. I would like to schedule a call with your team to get acquainted on mutual areas of concern.
My advocacy campaign, Foul Ball Safety Now, is actively engaging in dialogue about athlete psychology, public safety, and the unseen mental burden carried by players and coaches in professional and college baseball.
In recent years, my team and I have interviewed more than 30 people connected to baseball, including current and former MLB and minor league players, coaches, and insiders of the game. Many of them have described the psychological impact of knowing that a split-second foul ball or bat can strike a spectator in the stands or outside the ballpark.
These individuals have explained that the possibility of injuring a fan can weigh heavily on their minds. Some have spoken about persistent anxiety while at bat or in the dugout. Others have reflected on the emotional aftermath when incidents occur.
We are concerned about the mental wellness of athletes and coaches who may carry this burden throughout their careers. Based on our conversations and conferences with baseball professionals and college athletes, we believe the issue deserves serious attention from experts in sports psychology, sports science, and athlete wellbeing.
That’s why I was very interested to learn about OnRise. As it happens, I was on the website of the MLBPA looking for their contact email address when I saw the January news item announcing your agreement with the players union to provide holistic mental support for players.
Can we schedule an introductory call? How about next week Monday-Thursday between 4-6pm EST? That window is when I typically work with Brendan, an investigative journalist on our team who assists with data collection and analysis, who could join our call.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you,
Jordan Skopp
Founder, Foul Ball Safety Now