Imrem: Pay attention to this: Baseball needs netting
Finally, Joe Maddon is incorrect on a subject.
The Cubs' manager has a sensible opinion on just about everything. However, Maddon recently expressed his feelings on whether the netting behind home plate should be extended for the safety of fans.
No, Maddon said, paying customers should just pay more attention to what's happening on the field.
In other words, be alert to the possibility that a foul ball or a flying bat could head directly toward your head.
Sounds simple: Simply pay more attention to the game.
The only problem is that Maddon must not have been paying enough attention lately to what's going on around him in society.
People have the attention span of a sofa pillow.
Not just at baseball games, either. At other sporting events and at work and at the movies and during casual conversation and while walking the dog and between the first and second courses of dinner …
Uh, what point was I about to make?
Oh, yeah, you can't expect baseball fans to pay attention to every pitch of every inning of every game.
Baseball crowds are the most social in all of team sports. The game lends itself to fans discussing world events.
OK, so maybe two people sitting next to each in the third-base box seats don't talk to each other as much as they text each other back and forth.
Texter 1: You want to go for dinner after the game?
Texter 2: Where did you have in mind?
Texter 1: Wait, what just happened?
Texter 2: I don't know, but I think somebody might have hit a home run.
Texter 1: So what about dinner?
Earlier this week I ventured from my press-box bunker for a reminder of what it's like to sit in the box seats behind the Cubs' dugout.
"I'm trying to get a feel for how risky it is to sit down here," I said to the usher who stopped me in my sneaker tracks.
No go, perhaps because I wasn't wearing a hard hat. Maybe he saved me from myself, a line drive and a hospital stay.
A friendly security guard consoled me with, "I can't let you down there, but I can tell you that's it dangerous for people sitting there."
Then he cut right to the issue that Maddon addressed: "They need to put up some nets around here."
A debate is raging throughout the major leagues these days over whether the netting behind home plate should stretch from dugout to dugout or even foul pole to foul pole.
Traditionalists say no, the game survived forever without wounded fans falling like pop flies.
Reformers say that bat speeds have revved up and foul balls are traveling at unprecedented speeds.
The discussion hit home on the Cubs' recent homestand when Kyle Schwarber launched a vicious liner that rocketed a fan to the emergency room.
She might have been texting. She might have been paying attention. Either way, Usain Bolt couldn't have ducked fast enough if that ball had his name on it.
So, now, pay attention to what I'm about to say, Mr. Maddon: Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park and all major-league ballparks need more netting like there is behind home plate and behind the goals in the NHL.
Fans at upcoming games should text club management that they're in favor of dramatic measures to enhance crowd safety.
Now, speaking of attention spans, I wonder how deep into this column you made it.
mimrem@dailyherald.com