By Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter Published Oct 13, 2017 at 10:39 AM Photography: David Bernacchi

The Milwaukee Brewers joined several other Major League Baseball teams on Friday in announcing plans to significantly extend the protective netting on the field level at Miller Park. The decision comes in the wake of the incident last month when a young girl was badly injured by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium.

The Miller Park netting was first extended after the 2015 season to the inside edge of each dugout to meet the standards set forth by MLB, which recommended that every team have field-level protection out to 70 feet within home plate. The Brewers’ extension of the netting will now run beyond that, to the outer edge of each dugout.

After a toddler was struck in the face by a line-drive foul ball on Sept. 20 and rushed to a local hospital, many people around the game – including an emotional Todd Frazier, the player who hit the ball – called for increased netting at stadiums.

At the time, league Commissioner Rob Manfred said, "Over the past few seasons, MLB has worked with our clubs to expand the amount of netting in our ballparks. In light of (the Sept. 20) event, we will redouble our efforts on this important issue." More than a dozen teams now either have extended netting or, like the Brewers, announced plans to extend the protection.

It’s an issue that hits close to home at Miller Park, where in 2014 and 2015 two women were struck by foul balls and required medical treatment. According to the Milwaukee attorney representing the area women, a Bloomberg study in 2014 found that more than 1,700 people that season were injured from foul balls at major-league games, which was approximately 50 individuals per team per year. With balls often traveling faster than 100 miles per hour, fans have about a half-second to react in many situations.

In its news release Friday, the Brewers said they were currently working with engineers and vendors on specifics related to the project. The new extension will be completed in time for the Brewers’ 2018 home opener on Monday, April 2.

Jimmy Carlton Sportswriter

Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.

After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.

Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.