A man who lost his wife to a foul ball has rejected an offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers to hold a moment of silence in her honor.
Erwin Goldbloom lost his wife of 59 years to a brain injury after she was struck by a foul ball during a game in Los Angeles last year. According to a report from ESPN’s Outside the Lines, the Dodgers offered Goldbloom a moment of silence for his wife at a game this year, but he declined. (RELATED: New Report Suggests The Dodgers Allegedly Covered Up A Sexual Assault By One Of Their Players)
“We don’t need their sympathy. We want action,” Goldbloom said, according to ESPN. “If they agree to make changes to improve safety for fans, then I’ll go down there.”
“The last thing I remember asking her was, ‘are you okay?’ when the ball hit her. She said ‘no.’”
Erwin Goldbloom’s wife Linda was killed by a foul ball at @Dodgers stadium last August. He filed a lawsuit & settled. Now, he’s wants to make stadiums safer. Hear from him at 5:41p pic.twitter.com/Lk9E93xcSq
— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) February 6, 2019
The Goldbloom family previously settled a lawsuit with the organization for an undisclosed amount of money for the incident, and Goldbloom has advocated for stricter safety regulations in MLB ballparks since the tragedy occurred.
Before this incident, only one fan death had ever been attributed to a foul ball, also at Dodgers’ Stadium in 1970. There have, however, been many serious injuries as a result of foul balls, and the league has come under fire for not implementing tougher safety regulations. A 2014 study from Bloomberg found that 1,750 fans a year are hurt due to foul balls.
This is obviously a horrible situation and our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the family at the time.
Aside from foul balls, there are other ways people have died at MLB ballparks, including falling off the ledge near stadium seats.