Fan Dead After Falling Over Rangers Ballpark Wall
 

They were showing this on the news here. Awful. RIP

I bet Josh Hamilton feels bad. Is a ball really worth that risk? How sad. Maybe they need to increase the height of the railings at Rangers Ballpark. I love going to baseball games, but they can be dangerous.

OH NO!! That is just terrible.

Unfortunately, this is certainly not the first time a fan has fallen over the railings at Arlington Stadium. Same thing happened last year, too. They are going to HAVE to raise the railings for fan safety, line of sight be damned.

What a terrible tragedy. How bizarre that this gentleman & last year's accident victim were both firefighters. I bet the stadium & Rangers are going to be sued quite badly over this death.

One article said that Hamilton feels guilty and he and the team are horrified. I think the article said Hamilton threw the ball because that guy or another guy had been asking for a ball.

I can't even imagine. :(

Here too. I couldn't watch. It made my stomach turn to think that the networks would even show this. RIP:(

Supposedly the guy was talking at the park before they took him away in the ambulance. I wonder what happened? Maybe a brain bleed. A head first fall is never good. They won't change the height of the railings, so the key is not to lean to far over...you CAN fall to your death.

That link as a video and the comments are RIDICULOUS. People are so cold and heartless sometimes. SMH I feel so badly for that little boy and his family.

As someone who has worked in trauma units for over 10 years, this is my exact guess. Not uncommon for the medical record to note that patient was alert (+/- oriented) at the scene only to be in coma in the unit. EDH/SDH/ICH that just grew and created significant pressure would not be unusual.

So very sad. I am a huge Rangers fan, have sat in that seating area many times, and am now introducing the sport to my children- just like Mr. Stone was. The family requested (through Nolan Ryan who called them the day after) for the media to stop playing the video clip. I hope that the media will stop playing it out of respect, and wish it could be removed from youtube. We are talking about a 6 year old who will never see his dad again, and does not need the permanent image playing over and over.

As for the railings, they exceed the height that is considered standard by OSHA and have already been raised several times since the park opened. WHile this is an absolute tragedy, I don't know that any facility could be made completely accident proof, and don't think that raising them again is the right answer.

The comments are ridiculous, and I'm not just talking about the ones making fun of the guy.

People calling for the announcers to be fired need to calm down. It's natural to laugh at someone falling at first (unless it's obvious that the person would die)

No, it is not natural to laugh at someone falling at first when they are falling that many feet down. 20 feet? I don't think the announcers should be fired. It's more of a learning lesson.

I remember years ago when I was at a college football game. A fan was carelessly joking around the edge and fell. He only fell about 3 feet and we STILL all said "ooooooooooooh" and watched in silence. It wasn't until he jumped back up 2 seconds later and went back to his joking self with no need for medical attention that we all burst out laughing.

Reporting over the weekend said the fencing (railing) exceeded federal occupational safety hazard standards. It was just a tragic, unfortunate accident where the player was honoring a baseball customer-friendly tradition of tossing a bad (or otherewise unplayable ball) to a fan who unfortunately fell.

Usually it is infielders tossing balls to fans in seats nearest the dugouts -- with no chance of falling 20 feet.

It's a freak accident. Hopefully, the sport doesn't change anything at all due to it. No one was negligent, no one has a good lawsuit, it's just that freak accidents occur, and there's nothing anyone can do about that.

Maybe its just me.

I still feel bad for the guy, even worse for laughing at first.

With that barrier in place, the visiting announcers likely couldn't see how far down it was or that there was no safety net. Once they realized (by the crowd still looking down) that Stone wasn't getting up, they started expressing concern. I'm not saying it's okay to laugh at ANYONE who falls but it's a learned reaction for most people who have no reason to believe the person isn't perfectly fine.

What got me are the people who made fun of him, saying "it's his own fault." It was an accident. People are just...ugh, let me not start.

Everyone knows how far the fall is and that there are no safety nets at these stadiums. These announcers are professionals who are very aware of the logistics and layouts of baseball stadiums.

That's as much as an assumption as saying they were clueless to the height of the fall. So my point still stands. While it's not "okay" to laugh at anyone who falls, regardless of the distance, it is the first reaction of many if not most people to whom it is not obvious the person is fine. I don't think it's right (especially for the announcers, part of a professional staff) but with AFV and other blooper shows that tend to condition people to laugh at potentially injurious situations, I wouldn't expect anything else. Should they be fired? No. Should they act more sensitively to similar incidents from now on? Yes.

...anyway...it isn't natural to laugh at someone falling in a baseball stadium.

Falls in stadiums are hit or miss. Some people survive and some people don't. A man survived a 30-foot fall about a year ago. People can choose to laugh...whether nervousness or humor...but that doesn't make it natural to laugh.

Okay. With this I can agree. I can't imagine how horrible that must've been for his son to watch that and agree with the request to stop playing the clip. Some say it should be left up as a "lesson" for others but no one needs to see that to learn something.

The morning news showed excerpts of Shannon Stone's memorial service. Rest in peace.

On the same day as this memorial service, a complete idiot named Keith Carmickle was saved from falling head-first.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/allsta...ory?id=6759862

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_895355.html

The morning news showed the clips of Carmickle being grabbed and saved by his folks. Scary stuff but I consider this almost freak accident to be more preventable than what happened to Stone (still preventable but he wasn't being a complete idiot--perhaps careless--but not a complete idiot).

They showed that on the news here in PHX last night. Seriously...just let the ball go! It costs like $2.50. No one cares where you got it.