2018 Fenway and JetBlue Park netting

BoSoxLady

Rules Red Sox Nation with an Iron Fist
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 24, 2003
3,448
I hope I'm not opening a can of worms by starting a new thread (the previous thread was closed) on this subject. Delete if necessary.

I received an email from the Red Sox today (season ticket holder) announcing an extension of the netting at Fenway and the installation of netting at JetBlue Park.

"The Red Sox today announced plans to extend protective netting beyond the dugouts at Fenway Park for the start of the 2018 season. The new netting system will extend from Field Box Section 79 to Field Box Section 9, expanded from an area previously covering Field Box Section 61 to Field Box Section 29. It will be positioned with the same consistent height as the existing system, which stands at 12 feet, 8 inches above the playing field.

Additionally, in collaboration with Lee County, Florida, protective netting will also be extended at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers from Field Box Section 111 to Left Field Box Section 114, expanded from Field Box Section 105 to Left Field Box Section 106. This new system will be completed for the start of the upcoming 2018 spring training season.

The club has worked with design and engineering teams, as well as netting vendor Promats Athletics, to devise and install netting solutions for both Fenway Park and JetBlue Park that offer optimal visibility for the fan viewing experience. All netting will be “field green” in color to further minimize the impact to sightlines in affected areas.

While expanded netting will offer additional protection, the club continues to encourage fans to be vigilant during games and to be on the lookout for balls and bats that may enter the stands in their seating area."

I received a call from the Red Sox in FL three days ago asking if I'd like to upgrade our seats at JetBlue. I declined because we love our seats, as the view is similar to my view at Fenway. All of a sudden, I receive an email from the Sox informing me that we'll have netting in front of us for spring training. Our decision probably wouldn't change but it would have been a nice gesture if the rep informed me of the netting. The Red Sox in Boston did offer me the opportunity to check out the netting at Fenway but a) we were in FL and b) I'll never change my seats at Fenway.
 

Attachments

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
SoSH Member
Jul 20, 2005
7,878
Boston, MA
I'm hoping this actually improves my view of the field. The nets themselves aren't too big a deal to look through, but the wires holding them up are all over the place. I assume the new wires would be shorter since they'd hook onto the ends of the new nets, which are now almost out to canvas alley.
 

Sampo Gida

Member
SoSH Member
Aug 7, 2010
5,044
I have to imagine there is a difference between looking through the netting depending on if you are looking at it direct or via an angle like most of those in the OF seats with netting will have to do to see the IF and batter? Not sure about it though.

The velocity of batted ball drops quite a bit when it travels some distance plus fans have more reaction time in those seats. So this seems unnecessary to me. I could care less since I don't go to the park to see games anymore, and doubt I will change my mind to do so with all the netting.

I am wondering if some fans may have been choosing the cheaper seats w/o netting to the more expensive seats with netting so they decided to equalize the view to prevent this.
 

charlieoscar

Member
Sep 28, 2014
1,339
The velocity of batted ball drops quite a bit when it travels some distance plus fans have more reaction time in those seats.
Yeah, suppose the velocity of the line drive has dropped to 60 mph. That is still 88 feet per second. Where do you move to get out of the way when the section is packed; when you're between a couple of large spectators? What about shattered bats? Players loosing their grip on bats?

In the early days, bats were made of hickory, a very heavy and strong wood, but as the pitching velocity went up, the desire for lighter bats also increased and there was a switch to ash. Two things happened, though: good northern white ash became harder to find and Barry Bonds used maple bats when he hit 73 home runs in 2001.

Maple became the thing but maple also shatters while ash splinters. The other side of that coin is that maple bats allegedly last longer than ash bats, another reason that players shifted to maple. So you went from heavy hickory bats with thick handles to lighter maple bats with thin handles; from bats that players often gripped with their hands separated by inches as they tried to place their hits to ones that shattered but produced more home runs...from a safe to a very dangerous situation.
 

Ale Xander

Hamilton
SoSH Member
Oct 31, 2013
72,441
. The Red Sox in Boston did offer me the opportunity to check out the netting at Fenway but a) we were in FL and b) I'll never change my seats at Fenway.
You wouldn't want to theoretically move to row CC or DD because of rain/sun, I assume, or a different reason?
 

BoSoxLady

Rules Red Sox Nation with an Iron Fist
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 24, 2003
3,448
You wouldn't want to theoretically move to row CC or DD because of rain/sun, I assume, or a different reason?
I sat across the aisle in Row EE for years and was sick of the rain and sun so I requested a relocation. That was in 2003 when the Sox were very accommodating.

I moved back to LL because the row was at the edge of the roof line. When the State Street Pavilion was built, I royally lucked out because they extended the roof by four rows. I freeze my ass off in April and September but my location is fabulous during the summer.

The only issue is the friggin’ cables holding up the netting that are in my line of sight. /ducking
 

Lose Remerswaal

Experiencing Furry Panic
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
I wonder if they had had this netting 10 years ago if Derek Jeter might have gotten caught up in the netting like a fish out of water.

And if the netting will be able to hold back a well thrown slice of pizza?
 

charlieoscar

Member
Sep 28, 2014
1,339
My experiences with screens and lacks thereof...

I've been to a lot of parks and my first one was Fenway when I was nine, sitting directly behind home plate in row 3 with my glove, watching in disappointment as foul balls rolled down the screen.

In the late '70s we went to Toronto for a Red Sox series in September at Exhibition Stadium and was sitting way down the RF line when Willie Upshaw hit a line drive right at me early in the game. The seating down there was aluminum benches; it was crowded and rainy and I had no where to move. The ball caught me on the end of my thumb and the game went into extra innings. I found out after that i had a fractured thumb. A screen would not have stretched that far.

Around 1980 we went to an Alexandria (VA) Dukes play and an elderly woman in the third base stands was struck by a flying bat (not broken). She was taken out by ambulance. She wopuld have been saved by a screen.

Sometime in the '90s we went to see a Red Sox farm club play the Bowie Baysox. We were sitting behind the first base dugout, first or second row just past the end of the screen. There was a mother sitting in two rows behind us, holding an infant. The batter hit a foul line drive that hit the baby in the head. Later during the game, the team made an announcement that the baby was okay. I recall thinking, a.) Why would anyone bring a baby to a baseball game; b.) if they did, why would they spend their time talking to people behind them rather than watching what was happening; c.) maybe an extension of the screen would be a good idea.

In 1995, we went to Camden Yards to see a game and were sitting in the left field seats at least an hour before game time, reading the O's magazine, filling out the line-up on the score card, when I happened to glance up and see a baseball heading towards my wife's head. I had just enough time to deflect the ball from hitting her face but it caught the edge of her eyeglasses, knocked them off and broke them. This apparently was baseball's way of reconnecting with fans after the 1994 strike; however, there was no mention that this might happen; there was no warning from the person throwing balls into the stands; there was no offer from the club in any way of recompense. I did talk to an attorney who thought I could win a case but who also said it probably wasn't worth the effort. There is no way they would put a screen out there.

As someone who likes to take their camera to games, I really don't like screens. I don't know how many games I have been to but I have seen games in 137 parks, major and minor. There was one minor league park a few years ago (I can't recall which) that had its screen stretched out far past the dugouts. But there are to many people who spend their time on phones, talking with friends, etc., not to have more protection, especially with the way bats shatter nowadays.