A rather unsettling incident occurred at Fenway Park last Friday, when an unsuspecting fan was hit by part of a broken bat in the stands just down the third base line.
The bat, belonging to A’s third-baseman Brett Lawrie, cracked upon contact, causing an extremely sharp shard to be sent flying into the stands. Unfortunately, the bat did not hit the protective netting behind home plate, but instead traveled down the third baseline and into the stands.
Brett Lawrie's broken bat strikes fan in head on the third base side. Leaves field strapped to gurney, bloody and screaming. Awful scene.
— John Tomase (@jtomase) June 5, 2015
The fan, who was later identified as Tonya Carpenter, was treated by Fenway medics, and was taken to the hospital immediately. Later that night, the news was out that Carpenter had life-threatening injuries.
"“When one breaks like that, there’s jagged edges on it, anything can happen,” Lawrie said following the game, according to Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald. “You’ve got limited netting here in Boston…it’s so close there’s really no time to react,”"
Now, a week later, Carpenter was upgraded to what the hospital is calling “Good condition”, according to Joe Lemire of USA Today.
A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie did what he could to raise Carpenter’s spirits, and sent her flowers. the flowers also held a note for Carpenter, which read “Sending My Thoughts And Prayers, Brett Lawrie”.
A freak-accident like this is certainly tough to stomach, but we’re very glad to see Carpenter recovering.