SAFETY COMES FIRST

Her friends are always surprised that Jennifer Torres hasn’t taken her son Mason to an Astros game.

She and husband, Andrew, met at Minute Maid Park in 2013. They went on several dates to the ballpark — their love for the sport and the local team fueling a courtship that led them to wed in 2016. Last year, they welcomed their first child.

They haven’t been to a game since.

“I just don’t think it’s safe for a 1-year-old,” Jennifer said. “I don’t know what I would do if a line drive came toward us. Obviously, we would shield Mason. But sometimes it doesn’t matter how fast you react. Those hits are hard and fast. I can’t even think about one of them hitting my son.”

The Torres family loves their team. Jennifer is as big a fan as she’s ever been and dresses her toddler head to toe in Astros gear. For now, they just enjoy the team on television.

“I’m sure he will love going to games someday,” she said. “I’m just not ready to take him yet. I’d love to see some more safety measures added before I am.”

Jennifer isn’t alone in the growing group of baseball fans concerned for their safety at games.

While those fans implore Major League Baseball to extend protective netting in baseball stadiums to add another safety precaution to the mix, another group is clamoring about how several more feet of net will ruin baseball.

This is one of the more absurd discussions taking place in sports.

Balls are being hit harder than ever and the reaction time needed by a fan in the way of a line drive is decreasing rapidly.

This is a no-brainer. If there is a way to make the environment safer for everyone, it should be done. That should be the end of this discussion.

Sadly, it is not.

MLB could and should do the right thing and require teams to extend the netting. League and team officials are quick to say they care about the safety of fans, but only five of the 30 teams have taken any action to prove it.

It follows an incident last month at Minute Maid Park in which a 25-month old girl was struck in the head by afoul ball off the bat of the Cubs’ Albert Almora Jr.

The scene was horrifying to watch. The crying child was quickly whisked away for medical care while Almora was visibly upset and emotional.

That incident — which is similar to others that have happened at other ballparks for years — prompted ahandful of teams to respond in a timely manner.

The Dodgers, Nationals, White Sox, Rangers and Pirates have announced plans to extend netting at their ballparks.

This past week, the lawyer for the family of the little girl released an update on her condition. The foul ball fractured her skull, according to attorney Richard Mithoff.

In a letter addressed to Astros owner Jim Crane, Mithoff said the 2-year old suffered a seizure and bleeding and swelling of the brain. Mithoff went on to say that while she is doing relatively well right now, it’s too early to tell what long-term effects her injuries will have.

No lawsuits have been filed — only the letter has been sent to the team.

In the meantime, the Astros are staying neutral.

They’ve announced plans to study additional netting, but aren’t making any promises to add any.

It’s understandable that the Astros didn’t rush right out and make immediate changes. In situations like these where a family might possibly look at suing a team for these injuries, the addition of the netting right away could appear as an admission of guilt.

The Astros aren’t at fault for what was a terrible accident and it’s unfortunate that all they can do in response to it is “study” something that would make Minute Maid Park safer.

Again, if MLB would step in and mandate this for every park, this problem would be solved.

In a study by Hart Research Associates published on ESPN-.com recently, baseball fans were polled and agreed by a margin of 78 percent to 22 percent that extended netting is a good thing. It protects fans who don’t have enough time to react to foul balls.

The fans against netting claim it obstructs fans’ views and that spectators know and understand the risks of getting hit.

Netting doesn’t obstruct any views. If it did, the most expensive seats in every ballpark wouldn’t be behind it.

People know the risks of driving in a car, too. That doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be added safety features like seat belts and airbags added to them.

This isn’t anew concept - MLB has addressed this problem before. The Astros were one of the first teams to expand protective netting to the ends of their dugouts in 2017. By the start of the 2018 season, all 30 teams had done so.

Now they need to take it a step further.

In June, fans injured at White Sox and Dodgers games were hospitalized. There were also fan injuries this month at a Rangers game and one at a Marlins game.

As the season goes on, there will be more.

Yes, fans should pay attention at games. But it’s unrealistic to believe every one of them will.

Between all the extra bells and whistles — the state-of-the-art video board displays, vendors shouting up and down the steps of each section, the mascots and several other distractions — there’s a lot going on.

And even for the fans paying close attention, there is little time to react. o make it better. Make it safer. Add netting.

Don’t put another child through something that can be avoided. And don’t put players through the emotions that come from putting their fans in harm’s way.

“We love the Astros,” Jennifer said. “I know my son will, too. I saw what happened to that little girl and can’t imagine what that family must be going through. If there’s a way to make it safer for any fans, I would love to see that happen.”

So would a lot of people. No one wants to take away from the baseball-viewing experience.

But the game has changed. From the velocity of fastballs to the power of hitting to the stadium changes (all the constant distractions,) a day at the ballpark has evolved. The safety precautions should evolve, too. jenny.creech@chron.com twitter.com/jennydialcreech