U.S. lawsuit over lack of baseball netting for fans is dismissed

(Adds Major League Baseball comment, netting recommendations, paragraphs 9-10) By Jonathan Stempel Nov 17 - A U.S. judge has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to require the 30 Major League Baseball teams to extend netting at stadiums farther down the first- and third-base lines to protect fans from injuries caused by foul balls and broken bats. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled late Wednesday that two fans who brought the proposed class-action lawsuit lacked standing to sue because they could not show a sufficient likelihood they would be injured at future games. The plaintiffs, Oakland Athletics fan Gail Payne and Los Angeles Dodgers fan Stephanie Smith, said harder-throwing pitchers, wooden bats that splinter easily, and distractions such as Wi-Fi put unprotected fans at greater risk of harm, and justified netting from "foul pole to foul pole." Rogers agreed that "while rare, the severity of injuries that baseball spectators sustain in the modern era as a result of foul balls is significantly more severe than in the past." But the Oakland-based judge cited data from Major League Baseball that the risk of injury to the plaintiffs in future games was only a small...