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A fan in the stands at Fenway Park was struck in the face by the shard of a broken bat during Friday night’s Boston Red Sox game. The woman was bleeding profusely, screaming in agony and was taken away on a stretcher.
Around 7:40 p.m., Oakland Athletics batter Brett Lawrie hit a ball and shattered his bat, leaving only the handle in his hands. Meanwhile the barrel of the bat went flying into the crowd and struck the unidentified woman in the head. The woman was allegedly with a man and her son sitting near the visitors’ dugout on the third base side.
Woman suffers serious injuries after she was struck in the face by a broken bat at Fenway http://t.co/V7KlK6N0ra pic.twitter.com/UsPUniDCUF
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) June 6, 2015
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Paramedics and police rushed to the severely injured woman, and the game was stopped after the third out of that inning. After several minutes of medical assistance, she was placed on a stretcher and wheeled out of the stadium. Videos and photos show the woman badly bruised in her face and covered in blood. Boston police say the woman’s injuries are life-threatening.
"Brett Lawrie hit the ball and the bat snapped in half," one witness said after a fan was hit http://t.co/w0PsYTBxm2 pic.twitter.com/5EvWiOUwcC
— The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) June 6, 2015
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The woman was taken to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Reports say that she was in surgery at approximately 9 p.m. on Friday evening. At 7:45 a.m. on Saturday, Beth Israel spokeswoman Jennifer Kritz said the hospital is not providing any information regarding the condition of the woman at this time.
After the game, Lawrie said that he did not initially realize the severity of the woman’s injuries because he was running to first base when his bat hurtled into the crowd. He did quickly glance back while running to first base.
“Then in between innings is when things kind of got serious and I realized there was a bit of an issue,” Lawrie said. “Hopefully everything is OK and she’s doing all right.. . . That was just unfortunate right there, no doubt.”
“You’ve got limited netting here in Boston,” Lawrie said. “When you’re behind home plate and you’re along the third base side and first base side, you’ve really got to be heads-up for foul balls, anything coming into the stands, because it’s so close there’s really no time to react.”
Red Sox center fielder Mookie Betts commented on the tragic situation.
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Red Sox manager John Farrell remarked on the scary incident:
“Our thoughts and concern and certainly our prayers go out to the woman who was struck with the bat, her, and her family. All you can think about is a family coming to a ballgame to hopefully get three hours of enjoyment and unfortunately with how close our stands are to the field of action . . . an accident like this tonight, it’s certainly disturbing.”
“Just terrible,” Red Sox chairman Tom Werner said of the accident. “My prayers go out.”
Hopefully this woman recovers and is back on her feet very, very soon.