Francisco Lindor Urges MLB to Extend Nets After 3-Year-Old Boy Hit by Foul Ball

Cleveland's Francisco Lindor hit a line-drive foul ball during Sunday's 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals that struck a three-year-old boy, sending the child to the hospital. 

Lindor said after the game that he wants to see Progressive Field and the rest of MLB's ballparks extend the netting beyond the two dugouts, per ESPN:

"I encourage every MLB team to put the nets all the way down. I know it's all about the fans' experience of interacting with players, and I completely get that. You want to have that interaction with the fans, getting autographs and stuff, but at the end of the day, we want to make sure everybody comes out of this game healthy, and we got to do something about it.

"Everybody feels bad. And if we can put the nets a little bit further down, I think it would be a lot better."

Lindor was shaken up by the situation.

"It stinks, man," he said. "You don't want to get nobody hurt. I have heard the kid is doing well. He's in the hospital. He's getting checked, and all I know is he's in stable condition and he's doing good. In a way, that makes me happy, but it stinks. You don't want that to happen to anybody, especially a little kid."

Protective netting has become a major point of conversation in baseball this season, as foul balls have struck a number of fans. Last season, a 79-year-old woman, Linda Goldbloom, died after she was struck by a hit ball at Dodger Stadium.

The Chicago White Sox are the first team that has made the decision to extend the safety netting to each foul pole. But to this point, Major League Baseball has left the decision up to the individual clubs, as commissioner Rob Manfred said during an interview with ESPN's Mike Golic (h/t NPR.com): 

"We've made tremendous strides in the last four years in terms of the amount of netting in ballparks. The way we've achieved that is we have worked with the clubs individually, recognizing that each ballpark is different in terms of the way it's laid out, in terms of the infrastructure that's in place and we have constantly encouraged them to make improvements."

Lindor isn't the only player who wants to see more precautions put in place for fans, however.

"It's so sad," Chicago Cubs slugger Kris Bryant said in May after a two-year-old fan was struck by a foul ball off the bat of Albert Almora. "I don't know what we can do. Let's just put fences up around the whole field. ... I think any safety measure we can take to make sure fans are safe, we should do it."

The widespread extension of protective netting seems inevitable. With batters focusing on improving their launch angles and exit velocity at the plate, balls are being ripped into the stands at blistering speeds. Even fans paying attention to the action may not be able to react to a line drive in time.

At some point, the potential for injuries and protecting fans against them outweighs any slight inconvenience to the viewing experience.