Ongoing T-mobile Park Fan Safety Concerns Mar 9, 2026

Dear Washington State and Seattle leaders,

Foul Ball Safety Now is insisting that the Seattle Mariners provide fans with more protection from dangerous foul balls and bats entering seating areas at T-Mobile Park. Despite projected spending of $24.3 million on dozens of upgrades to the stadium for 2026, the Mariners appear to have ignored calls for raising the netting higher to prevent the risk of serious injury or even death from high-speed balls and bats. 

During Game 2 of the ALDS playoffs between the Mariners and Detroit Tigers on October 5, 2025, the whole country witnessed the incident of the broken bat coming over the net – just before the dugout begins — and entering the seats. You can see video footage of the incident at https://www.foulballsafetynow.com/batmissile.

Even with an announcer saying ‘yikes! Look out!’ during this nationally televised playoff game, this incident appears to have received no news coverage, and the Mariners have not addressed the incident publicly, let alone raised the netting before their 2026 home opener. 

According to the current Mariners’ website, the netting above the dugouts and down the foul lines to the corners remains only 13.5 feet high. Jorge Polanco’s broken bat boomeranged at high speed into the stands, easily clearing the netting, and exposed how dangerous T-Mobile Park is for fans and stadium personnel. 

The City of Seattle should not allow the Mariners to operate until these unsafe conditions are fully remedied. A complete review of the protective netting is warranted, as well as a close inspection of data believed to be in the possession of the Mariners, MLB and their technology vendors pinpointing where foul balls and bats have reached seats at speeds significant enough to cause serious injuries. 

In addition to the standardized use of Hawk-Eye camera tracking (Statcast) throughout the MLB, which provides extremely accurate data on exit velocities and location data for every ball, the Mariners are among the teams who have contracted with third-party vendors to provide “a multicamera system that photographs every fan at T-Mobile Park during big moments, like Polanco’s home run, or smaller moments, like the Hydro Challenge.” (Seattle Times, October 2025)  

Those sophisticated camera systems are capable of capturing other important moments, such as incidents of fan injuries from foul balls and bats. So where is that data? Foul Ball Safety Now believes it must be released publicly, and then used to formulate safety upgrade strategies to ensure that these incidents can never happen again. Fans deserve to go home whole, not need to be taken by ambulance to the emergency room because of inadequate netting.

In order for that data to be made public, it will take the commitment of public officials and elected leaders to demand its release, using whatever powers are necessary to compel MLB and teams to be transparent about their advanced knowledge of fan injuries and safety risks. It will not be easy, as we have seen past efforts fail – for example when two U.S. Senators asked MLB to release the data, nothing was released publicly and we assume such requests will again be fought against. Even in litigation against MLB teams over serious injuries, very little incident data has been produced. But there is some, and that indicates it is being collected and likely stored and shared with the MLB Commissioner. 

It’s no longer tolerable that MLB should get away with hiding its data. Despite advanced knowledge of the threats, the professional baseball industry has failed to safeguard fans.

Fans deserve safety not only in MLB stadiums, but also in Spring Training facilities and minor league ballparks. 

We’re aware of an incident in which a young child was seriously injured by a thrown bat nearly a decade ago at an MLB game, and we’ve documented far too many fan injuries in recent years throughout professional baseball. Unfortunately, more incidents will surely be reported this season, because there remains no systemic review or standardized requirements, let alone regulatory oversight, of these ballparks.

This threat to fan safety also deserves attention at the Mariners’ Spring Training facility in Peoria, Arizona, as a recent incident revealed once again. 

During the bottom of the sixth inning as the Arizona Diamondbacks took on the Seattle Mariners at Peoria Sports Complex on February 27, Mariners batter Josh Naylor hit two foul balls back to back. The first soared out of the ballpark on the right field corner. The second appeared to have remained inside the ballpark near the left field corner, according to the crowd reaction. On the final pitch of the inning, Naylor’s bat went flying as he struck out swinging. The bat appeared to boomerang towards the first base dugout area, and the announcers said it went into the dugout as they laughed. The audible “OHHH!!!” reaction of the crowd and heads turning indicated momentary concern that it might injure someone. The broadcast went to commercial break.

https://www.mlb.com/mariners/video/spring-training-sea-az-194465

Those are potentially dangerous situations that deserve careful review. Those foul balls could injure someone outside the ballpark, in addition to the threats posed inside by balls and bats that might travel over the existing netting.

Meanwhile, baseball culture continues to make light of these threats to safety. Even the advertisers are getting in on the action there, as anyone can attest who has seen the All-State ‘Mr. Mayhem’ commercial where a thrown bat breaks a windshield – 98K views on YouTube and countless more on TVs across America. That’s not a laughing matter. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3D0QOTwBZo

There is no standard for how high the netting must be, which is ridiculous. How can it be acceptable that Seattle’s nets are only 13.5 feet high, when at some other MLB stadiums the nets are over 30 feet high (and that isn’t always adequate either)?

There are inconsistencies all over the place in MLB, demonstrating that this needs a league-wide, mandated review, or better yet, an independent agency to review the data and take a regulatory approach to this. We deserve a baseball civilized society where none of these risks are considered acceptable, and certainly not normalized.

We’re still waiting for the day when we can be guaranteed a safe experience inside and outside the ballpark. Professional baseball can be an ecosystem where everyone wins and everyone goes home healthy. But that day is a long way off.

I look forward to hearing from you on your vision for solving these issues. I can be reached at (718) 627-6767 with any questions.

Sincerely,

Jordan Skopp, founder

Foul Ball Safety Now

info@foulballsafetynow.com

718-627-6767

cc: 

Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections (SDCI)

WA State Ballpark Public Facilities District (PFD)

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell  

Seattle City Council

The Seattle Times

The Stranger

KOMO News

KING 5 News

FOX13 News

97.3 KIRO News