There was a frightening incident Friday during the Oakland Athletics-Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park, as a broken-bat shard struck a fan, later identified as Tonya Carpenter, in the stands.
ESPN.com’s Gordon Edes reported that Athletics third baseman Brett Lawrie’s bat broke, sending a piece into the stands. That shard hit a fan who was sitting down the third-base line:
The woman was taken to the hospital where she was initially battling life-threatening injuries, Boston Police told David Wade of WBZ-TV. The family released a statement on the woman’s condition on Saturday, according to Ricky Doyle of NESN:
Tonya Carpenter was admitted to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center last night following injury at Fenway Park. She is in serious condition. Tonya’s family and loved ones are grateful to all who have reached out with thoughts and prayers but are requesting privacy at this time as Tonya recovers.
“She is expected to survive,” said Boston police spokeswoman Officer Rachel McGuire, according to Laura Krantz of the Boston Globe. She was sitting with her son at the time of the incident, McGuire said, according to Michael Vega of the Boston Globe.
“When one breaks like that, there’s jagged edges on it, anything can happen,” Lawrie said following the game, according to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. “You’ve got limited netting here in Boston…it’s so close there’s really no time to react,” Lawrie explained, via Mastrodonato.
John Tomase of WEEI described the scene at the time of the incident and noted medics took the fan out of the stadium on a gurney:
The scary incident happened during Lawrie’s first at-bat in the top of the second inning. Fans around the woman did come to her aid before medics could get there.
Every Major League Baseball stadium has protective nets behind home plate to prevent foul balls from striking fans, but it’s nearly impossible to protect against a freak accident like this one.
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