Coroner: Fan struck in head by foul ball during Dodgers game died of blunt force injury

[mahatmakanejeeves]

David Fahrenthold Retweeted

A woman was killed by a foul ball at a Dodgers game in August and it wasnt reported by the media or Major League Baseball until today

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Coroner: Fan struck in head by foul ball during Dodgers game died of blunt force injury
9:14 AM ET
William Weinbaum
ESPN

This story has been corrected. Read below.

A California woman died in August as a result of being hit in the head by a batted ball at Dodger Stadium, according to a Los Angeles County coroner's report obtained by ESPN's Outside the Lines and details her daughter revealed to OTL in December.

Linda Goldbloom, a mother of three and grandmother of seven, died on Aug. 29. The coroner's report states the cause as "acute intracranial hemorrhage due to history of blunt force trauma" and states that the injury occurred when she was struck in the head with a baseball during the Aug. 25 game at Dodger Stadium.

Television coverage of the Padres-Dodgers game that night did not follow the flight of the ball or show where it ended up. No media outlet has reported what happened, but Goldbloom's family didn't keep it a secret and included this sentence in email notifications on the day she died:

"While the end came suddenly by a foul ball at Dodgers (sic) Stadium, she had a long beautiful and blessed life."

The accident happened in the top of the ninth inning when a San Diego Padres batter fouled back a pitch. The ball, which was hit a little to the first-base side of home plate, sailed into the loge level -- just over the area protected by netting -- and struck Goldbloom's head as she sat in Section 106, Row C, Seat 5.
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In Major League Baseball's 150-year history, there were two previous reported instances of fans dying after being struck in the stands by balls that left the field of play, including one nearly half a century ago on a foul at Dodger Stadium:

• Clarence Stagemyer, 32, died a day after he was hit in the head by a thrown ball on Sept. 29, 1943, at Griffith Stadium in Washington. Senators third baseman Sherry Robertson fielded a grounder hit by Cleveland's Ken Keltner and threw it over the head of first baseman Mickey Vernon. The ball struck Stagemyer, who was in the first row of the stands.

• Alan Fish, 14, died four days after he was hit in the head by a foul ball on May 16, 1970, at Dodger Stadium. L.A.'s Manny Mota was batting against San Francisco's Gaylord Perry when he hit a liner down the first-base line, near the dugout, that struck Fish, who was located two rows from the field.
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[rsdsharp]

1. I was at a Twins game at the old Met stadium in the mid 1960s.

We were sitting in the reserved section slightly to the third base side behind home plate. Someone (I no longer remember who, but it might have been Jimmie Hall) hit a screaming line drive foul that hit an older lady in the head. She was about 15 feet to our left and a row or two behind us. She walked out of the stands with the help of ushers and medical staff, but she was obviously badly shaken and in pain; it was a scary moment.

You've got to pay attention at the game. Bats and balls can be very dangerous, and yet I see people looking down at their phones in the stands all the time. The new netting system helps a great deal, but it's obviously not infallible.

[JonLP24]

2. I'd rather not go to baseball game and not worry about it

I'll go to a game where I don't have to worry about balls in the stands.