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128-554: The rule arose from a pair of 1910s decisions by the Missouri Court of Appeals , both considering suits filed by spectators at home games of the minor league Kansas City Blues . In the first, considered to be the case that established the rule, the court upheld a trial verdict against the plaintiff, holding that his decision to sit outside the netting the team had installed behind home plate constituted contributory negligence and assumption of risk on his part. Conversely, in

256-527: A Texas League game in San Antonio , where they both sat in unprotected seats far from the backstop. During the fifth or sixth inning, she was struck in the chest by a foul ball her son had ducked while she had been talking to a friend seated several rows behind her. To overcome the team's assumption of risk defense, she argued that she was not that familiar with the game, having only attended one other baseball contest several years earlier. While it found

384-414: A Blues game came before the same court, allowing it to apply and clarify the rule. The circumstances of this case were markedly different, and the court found for the plaintiff, one Edling. In 1911, Charles Edling, like Crane, went to a Blues home game. He, too, paid the higher price for a grandstand seat, but unlike Crane chose to sit behind the netting, halfway up the stands from the field level, on almost

512-409: A batted baseball was filed during the first decade of the 20th century. A man watching a horse race at an Iowa agricultural fair was hit by a foul ball from a baseball game being played on the track's infield. He sued the directors of the fair; in 1907 the state's Supreme Court held that the directors were not liable since their organization's purpose was to promote agriculture and the baseball game

640-718: A condition of the sale of the Astros to Jim Crane in November 2011, the team agreed to move to the American League effective with the 2013 season. In 2023, National League teams played 46 regular season interleague games against all 15 American League teams, 23 at home and 23 on the road. As of the end of the 2024 season, the Dodgers have won the most NL pennants, with 25. Representing the National League against

768-410: A dangerous policy for the law to pronounce a principle of immunity to ball clubs against ordinary care as related to the construction of its stands or the location or the placing of equipment which has to do with the safety of its patrons." An appeals court in neighboring Indiana later that year also declined to distinguish an injury resulting from a fellow spectator's attempt to throw the foul back on

896-489: A distinction recent cases had begun to recognize but not formalize. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court accepted Indermaur as precedent two years later in a similar case of a ship damaged by a submerged rock, and it would eventually be so recognized by the courts of 26 states and the U.S. Supreme Court . In 1883 the Massachusetts Supreme Court held that a patron of a place of public amusement

1024-427: A few minutes later. The Washington Star reported in 1888 that a man claiming to have been hit by a ball (whether batted or thrown was not clear) at a Washington Statesmen game the year before had filed suit; if he had, it did not result in a published opinion . Media reports from the era suggest that there were other lawsuits besides the 1888 Washington lawsuit against baseball teams over foul ball injuries around

1152-509: A jury verdict in favor of a woman who had gone with her husband to see a Philadelphia Phillies doubleheader at Shibe Park in 1949. The couple had driven to Philadelphia from Allentown and arrived late, at the start of the first game's seventh inning. They had been assured by the ticket seller that their seats, in the upper deck, were behind the screen. When they found out that they were not, rather somewhat displaced towards first base, they resolved to see if they could exchange their tickets for

1280-487: A landowner was indeed liable for damages from personally known hazards or hazards the landowner reasonably could have been expected to. Since the plaintiff was there for business reasons, to inspect a faulty gas regulator, when he fell through the defendant's floor and suffered injury, the Court of Common Pleas held he was not a licensee but a visitor or invitee , there to transact business mutually beneficial to both parties,

1408-427: A line with home plate and the pitcher's mound so he could see pitches curve. During the game, Edling lost sight of one of the many foul balls until it struck him in the eye, having passed through a square-foot (930 cm) hole in the netting. The injuries were serious, including a broken nose as well as the eye damage, and Edling filed suit, demanding $ 3,500 ($ 114,000 in today's dollars) plus court costs. Since there

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1536-437: A minute and appeared to have recovered completely by the end of the game. However, on his ride home he began experiencing dizziness, and by the time he returned his parents took him to three hospitals in order to find one that would treat him. His condition deteriorated and surgery could not be done; Fish died after being taken off life support three days later. Missouri Court of Appeals The Missouri Court of Appeals

1664-482: A more "traditional" or "pure" league, the National League did not adopt the designated hitter rule until the shortened 2020 season . Only the American League previously adopted the rule in 1973. In theory, this meant that the role of the manager was greater in the National League than in the American League, because the NL manager must take offense into account when making pitching substitutions and vice versa. However, this

1792-460: A pair to seats that were, but due to crowds in the aisle, they chose to wait until that trip could be made more easily. Roughly two minutes afterwards, 10 minutes after they arrived, the woman was injured by a foul ball. Schentzel made the novel argument that teams should install extra screening on Ladies' Days, such as the one she had attended, since many women were admitted for free and it could not be expected that most of them would be familiar with

1920-458: A plaintiff could claim both that the defendant knew of the defect and he himself did not, whereas most spectators at a baseball game would have known that foul balls frequently entered the stands at high speed. There had not been many cases where the plaintiffs' knowledge of the possible risks was a factor. Also, at the time, American courts recognized assumption of risk and contributory negligence , when proven, as absolute bars to any recovery by

2048-567: A plaintiff. "If [they] knew of the dangers of foul balls and chose to sit in an unprotected seat," Hylton writes, "then he or she opened himself up to the charge that his or her own negligence ... had contributed to his or her injury." He also speculates that the dominant cultural ethos of rugged individualism during the Gilded Age and early Progressive Era may have led injured spectators to fault themselves, and only themselves, for their injury. The earliest reported lawsuit over injuries from

2176-563: A player deliberately threw the ball into the stands as a souvenir, for instance—but not in others, such as errant pitches from a relief pitcher warming up in the bullpen , situations where multiple balls are in play (such as (formerly) batting practice ), where struck spectators are not in the seating areas of the venue or where they may have been distracted by the team's mascot . In the wake of some serious injuries caused by foul balls in Major League Baseball (MLB) parks in

2304-615: A postseason championship—the World Series . Major League Baseball narrowly averted radical reorganization in November 1920. Dissatisfied with American League President and National Baseball Commission head Ban Johnson , NL owners dissolved the league on November 8 during heated talks on MLB reorganization in the wake of the Black Sox Scandal . Simultaneously, three AL teams also hostile to Johnson ( Boston Red Sox , Chicago White Sox , and New York Yankees ) withdrew from

2432-469: A practice that had already become common in the late 19th century due to injuries from foul balls, which rose after an 1884 rule change allowed overhand pitching. Courts have seen it as balancing the team's duty of care toward spectators with the spectators' interest in having an unobstructed view of the game available and perhaps being able to take home a recovered foul ball as a souvenir. It has been held to apply in some other situations besides foul balls—when

2560-526: A second major league in 1901, and the AL and NL engaged in a "baseball war" during 1901 and 1902 before agreeing to a "peace pact" that recognized each other as legitimate "major leagues". As part of this agreement, the leagues agreed to respect player contracts, establish rules about relationships with minor league clubs, and allow their champions to meet in a " World Series " to decide the overall professional baseball championship. National League teams have won 51 of

2688-401: A specific position over the plate. As a result, most games were dominated by offense, with fielding providing most defense, and games often ended with very high scores by modern standards. One or sometimes both teams exceeding 100 runs in a game was not unusual. Pitchers, some of whom had learned to throw the ball very fast even underhand, began to influence the game and drive down scores with

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2816-399: A spectator struck in the abdomen by a foul at a 1941 Columbus Red Birds game, one of the earliest to be played at night , argued that the team should have provided sufficient illumination for those in unprotected seating, as he was that night, to be able to see the ball should it come into the stands, appealed the directed verdict for the team. The Ohio Court of Appeals divided, with two of

2944-441: A subject of judicial notice. It strains our collective imagination to visualize the situation of the wife of a man obviously interested in the game, whose children view the games on the home television set, and who lives in a metropolitan community, so far removed from that knowledge as not to be chargeable with it. In 1970, for the first time, a spectator died of injuries from a foul ball at a major league game. Alan Fish, 14, went to

3072-660: A version of the World Series seven times during their ten-year coexistence. These contests were less organized than the modern Series, lasting as few as three games and as many as fifteen, with two Series (1885 and 1890) ending in disputed ties. The NL won four times and the AA only once, in 1886. Starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1887, the National League began to raid the American Association for franchises to replace NL teams that folded. This undercut

3200-473: A wide variety of such businesses, including sports venues. However, despite a more favorable legal climate, there were no reported cases over foul ball injuries. Marquette law professor J.G. Hylton, in a history of the origins of the Baseball Rule, notes that the visitor principle had primarily decided cases where the issues with the property had existed prior to the plaintiff's entry on to it and thus

3328-456: Is 70, after which a judge may elect to go on senior status . Source Source Source The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District, is located in the historic Old Post Office building in downtown St. Louis. The address is One Post Office Square, 815 Olive Street, Room 304, St. Louis, Missouri 63101. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District is located in its own courthouse in downtown Kansas City. The courthouse—built in 1982—is

3456-430: Is a fundamental rule of the law of negligence." Almost a century later, Hylton observed that despite Crane's failure to win his case, the court's decision did impose two requirements on teams. While they avoided a requirement they screen off all seats and end the practice of offering standing room only attendance behind the outfield fence to latecomers at sold-out games, both of which would have likely reduced attendance,

3584-415: Is knowledge common to all that in these games [of baseball] hard balls are thrown and batted with great swiftness; that they are liable to be muffed or batted or thrown outside the lines of the diamond, and visitors standing in position that may be reached by such balls have voluntarily placed themselves there with knowledge of the situation, and may be held to assume the risk. In 1913, an appellate court for

3712-429: Is nearly every normal American boy." Even if Keys had not taken note of this, the court added, she had been at the game for long enough to see, as her son had pointed out to her, that quite a few foul balls go into the stands. In yet another case from Kansas City, brought by a woman who moved with her son to unprotected seats at a 1947 game on the usher's apparent assurance that they were safe only to be hospitalized after

3840-890: Is the intermediate appellate court for the state of Missouri . The court handles most of the appeals from the Missouri Circuit Courts . The court is divided into three geographic districts: Eastern (based in St. Louis ), Western (based in Kansas City ), and Southern (based in Springfield ). For example, appeals taken from trials in St. Louis County will go to the Eastern District, and appeals taken from trials in Jackson County (Kansas City) will go to

3968-529: The Constitution of Missouri , Court of Appeals judges must be at least 30 years old, licensed to practice law in Missouri, a United States citizen for at least 15 years, a qualified voter of the state for nine years preceding selection, and a resident of the appellate district in which the judge serves. Judges serve a term of twelve years, but may seek additional terms. Mandatory retirement age for judges

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4096-745: The Houston Astros three years later. In 1969, the league added the San Diego Padres and the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals ), becoming a 12-team league for the first time since 1899. In 1969, as a result of its expansion to 12 teams, the National League—which for its first 93 years had competed equally in a single grouping—was reorganized into two divisions of six teams (respectively named

4224-546: The Los Angeles Dodgers May 16 home game at Dodger Stadium against the San Francisco Giants with other boys from his recreational program and the program director, where they sat in the second row at field level along the first base line. A Manny Mota foul hit Fish on the back of the head, above his ear, in the bottom of the third. Fish initially lost consciousness, but regained it after

4352-599: The National League ( NL ), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada , and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP) of 1871–1875 (often called simply the "National Association"), the NL is sometimes called

4480-833: The National League East and West , although geographically it was more like North and South), with the division champions meeting in the National League Championship Series (an additional round of postseason competition) for the right to advance to the World Series. In 1993 the league expanded to 14 teams, adding the Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins (which became the Miami Marlins shortly after

4608-585: The Senior Circuit , in contrast to MLB's other league, the American League , which was founded 25 years later and is called the "Junior Circuit". Both leagues currently have 15 teams. The National League survived competition from various other professional baseball leagues during the late 19th century. Most did not last for more than a few seasons, with a handful of teams joining the NL once their leagues folded. The American League declared itself

4736-533: The grandstand , next to the infield , for twice that price. In either area, all seats were general admission ; Crane could sit wherever he wanted if a space was available. By that time protective screens had been installed in every baseball park where the game was played professionally. At minimum they covered the area immediately behind home plate ; the screen at Association Park extended as far as first and third base on either foul line , roughly 90 feet (27 m) from home. Crane decided to sit in an area beyond

4864-402: The 119 World Series championships contested from 1903 to 2023. For decades, Major League baseball clubs only played teams from their own league during the regular season and most of the playoffs, with only their champions facing off in the World Series. This separation gradually caused the leagues to develop slightly different strategies and styles of play. The National League was long considered

4992-526: The 1880s. In 1942, when deciding Hudson v. Kansas City Baseball Club , which held that a plaintiff asserting that he had believed that a reserved seat he bought a ticket for was protected was not sufficiently different from other cases as to warrant an exception to the rule, the Missouri Supreme Court noted that Crane and Edling "have become leading cases throughout the country" in torts related to foul ball injuries. The following year

5120-403: The 2010s, including the first foul-ball spectator death at an MLB game in almost 50 years, there have been calls for the rule to be re-examined or abolished altogether, as more spectators are struck by a foul ball than players in the game are hit by a pitch . While MLB has required all of its teams to extend their protective screens to cover the area to the far end of the dugout on either side of

5248-511: The 60-foot (18 m) distance between the foul lines and the stands existed for a reason and that the temporary seating (closed to spectators that day) distinguished the case from Crane and the others like it in that it was not an ordinary part of games at the park. "[P]laintiff was subjected," the court wrote, "not only to the usual and ordinary perils of the game when played under its usual and ordinary conditions ... but also to an unusual and extraordinary hazard which had concededly been put in

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5376-459: The AL and joined the eight NL teams in forming a new National League; the 12th team would be whichever of the remaining five AL teams loyal to Johnson first chose to join; if none did so an expansion team would have been placed in Detroit , by far the largest one-team city at that time. Four days later, on November 12, both sides met (without Johnson) and agreed to restore the two leagues and replace

5504-524: The All-Star Game, or in the World Series. Beginning in 1997, however, interleague games have been played during the regular season and count in the standings. Prior to the early 2020s – before the universal designated hitter rule was started in both leagues – as part of the agreement instituting interleague play, the DH rule was used only in games where the American League team was the home team. In 1999,

5632-478: The American Association. After the 1891 season, the AA disbanded and merged with the NL, which became known legally for the next decade as the "National League and American Association". The teams now known as the Cincinnati Reds , Los Angeles Dodgers (originally Brooklyn) and Pittsburgh Pirates (as well as the now-defunct Cleveland Spiders ) had already switched from the AA to the NL prior to 1892. With

5760-686: The American League under the auspices of Major League Baseball, which now operates much like other North American professional sports leagues, albeit with two "leagues" instead of "conferences". By 1875, the National Association of Professional Ball Players (NAPBBP, often referred to as the "National Association"), founded four years earlier, was suffering from a lack of strong authority over clubs, unsupervised scheduling, unstable membership of cities, dominance by one team (the Boston Red Stockings ), and an extremely low entry fee ($ 10) that gave clubs no incentive to abide by league rules when it

5888-586: The American League, the Cardinals have won the most World Series (11) followed by the Giants and Dodgers (8), Pirates (5), and Reds (5). St. Louis also holds the distinction of being the only AA club to defeat an NL club in the 19th-century version of the World Series, having done so against their now-division rival Cubs. The eight charter teams were the following: The eight-team lineup established in 1900 remained unchanged through 1952. All franchises are still in

6016-468: The Blues appealed. In response to the team's claim that the jury should not have heard the testimony about the condition of the screen, the appeals court relied on Crane to hold that by purposely sitting behind the screen, Edling could reasonably assume he was safe from foul balls. "It was the duty of defendant to keep the screen free from defects, and if it [did not], the jury could properly infer that it ...

6144-459: The Central had one more team). A third postseason round was added at the same time: the three division champions plus a wild card team (the team with the best record among those finishing in second place) now advance to the preliminary National League Division Series . Due to a players' strike, however, the postseason was not actually held in 1994. Before the 1998 season, the American League and

6272-634: The NAPBBP because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a great vested interest in creating his own league, and after recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky , in January 1876. With Hulbert speaking for the five later in New York City on February 2, 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs

6400-490: The NL did not have teams, offered Sunday games and alcoholic beverages in locales where permitted, and sold cheaper tickets everywhere (25 cents versus the NL's standard 50 cents, a hefty sum for many in 1882). The NL struck back by establishing new clubs in 1883 in AA cities Philadelphia (later called "Phillies") and New York (the team that would become the Giants). The National League and the American Association participated in

6528-467: The NL to modify its labor practices, including a salary cap and a reserve clause that bound players to their teams indefinitely. The NL suffered many defections of star players to the Players' League, but the P.L. collapsed after one season. The Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York franchises of the NL absorbed their Players' League counterparts. The labor strike of 1890 hastened the downfall of

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6656-516: The NL. By 1903, the upstart AL had placed new teams in the National League cities of Boston , Chicago, New York, Philadelphia , and St. Louis , as well as the "abandoned" NL cities Cleveland and Washington (and, temporarily, Baltimore). Only the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates had no AL team in their markets. The AL among other things enforced a strict conduct policy among its players. The National League at first refused to recognize

6784-481: The National League each added a fifteenth team. Because of the odd number of teams, only seven games could possibly be scheduled in each league on any given day. Thus, one team in each league would have to be idle on any given day. This would have made it difficult for scheduling, in terms of travel days and the need to end the season before October. In order for MLB officials to continue primarily intraleague play, both leagues would need to carry an even number of teams, so

6912-602: The Supreme Court. Thus, for the vast majority of appeals, the Court of Appeals decision is final. The Missouri Court of Appeals has jurisdiction over all appeals which do not fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Missouri . The five categories of appeals over which the Supreme Court exercises exclusive jurisdiction are: Therefore, if an appeal falls within one of these five categories,

7040-608: The West Coast of the U.S. for the first time. The NL remained an eight-team league for over 60 years. (For the eight teams, see Expansion (1887–1899) above, and "Classic Eight" below.) In 1962—facing competition from the proposed Continental League and confronted by the American League 's unilateral expansion in 1961—the NL expanded by adding the New York Mets and the Houston Colt .45s. The "Colts" were renamed

7168-573: The Western District. After a case is decided in the Court of Appeals, the losing party may choose to accept the result, or to appeal further to the Supreme Court of Missouri . In most appeals, the Supreme Court of Missouri may, and often does, reject an appeal from the Court of Appeals (called " discretionary jurisdiction "). Historically, less than ten percent of the appeals heard by the Missouri Court of Appeals are transferred to

7296-489: The appeal must go directly to the Missouri Supreme Court. If an appeal does not fall within one of these five categories, the Missouri Court of Appeals may hear the case. The Missouri court of appeals functions by issuing written judicial opinions . These opinions create precedent for future cases within each District's geographic region. These opinions are available to the public. The court publishes

7424-608: The behavior of teammates that he quit playing in 1891 to become one of America's most famous evangelical Christian preachers. Most fans appear to have felt the same way, because attendance at games was plummeting by 1900. After eight seasons as a 12-team league, the NL contracted back to eight teams for the 1900 season, eliminating its teams in Baltimore , Cleveland , Louisville (which has never had another major league team since), and Washington . This provided an opportunity for competition. Three of those cities received franchises in

7552-449: The clubs' defiance by expelling them, an act which not only shocked baseball followers (New York and Philadelphia were the two most populous cities in the league) and the then sports world, but made it clear to clubs that league scheduling commitments, a cornerstone of competitive integrity, were not to be ignored. The National League operated with only six clubs during 1877 and 1878. Over the next several years, various teams joined and left

7680-399: The court also agreed it was not Edling's responsibility to avoid injury by keeping track of the ball at all times. "The uncertainty in the direction, speed and force of a batted ball is one of the interesting and exciting features of the game," the court observed, "and frequently it is difficult for even a trained eye to follow the course of the ball." Hylton reads Edling as contractualizing

7808-399: The court did hold that teams owed a duty of reasonable care to fans, which specifically meant that they should offer at least some protected seating. "This responsibility could not be shirked," Hylton wrote, "and it did not matter either if the patron knew of the danger before attending or was informed of it upon entering the park." Within a year another case of a fan injured by a foul ball at

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7936-449: The court reiterated the holding of Keys in this regard: Consequently, she must be presumed to have been cognizant of the "neighborhood knowledge" with which individuals living in organized society are normally equipped. We think the frequency with which foul balls go astray, alight in the grandstand or field, and are sometimes caught and retained by onlookers at baseball games is a matter of such common everyday practical knowledge as to be

8064-780: The decision was made to move one club from the AL Central to the NL Central. Eventually, Milwaukee agreed (after Kansas City declined) to change leagues; the National League now had 16 teams, the American League 14 with the switch. Beginning with the 2013 season, the Houston Astros moved from the National League Central to the American League West, which now gave both leagues three divisions of five teams each. Often characterized as being

8192-465: The defendant team and park. Since Brisson had specified the terms under which teams needed to provide screening, plaintiffs seeking to recover began basing their challenges on their lack of knowledge of the risks. These cases generally involved women who had accompanied their husbands or sons to the ballpark. The first such case had been decided the year before, when a Texas appeals court heard Keys v. Alamo City Baseball Co. . Keys had taken her son to

8320-421: The designated hitter rule in 2022 , and the expansion of interleague play to 46 games beginning in 2023 , has further blurred the lines between leagues. Though both leagues agreed to be jointly governed by a commissioner in 1920, they remained separate legal and business entities with their own president and management. This was the case until after the 1999 season, when the National League legally merged with

8448-606: The end of the 2011 season). In 1998, the Arizona Diamondbacks became the league's fifteenth franchise, and the Milwaukee Brewers moved from the AL to the NL, giving the NL 16 teams for the next 15 seasons. In 1994, the league was again reorganized, into three geographical divisions (East, West and Central , all currently with five teams; from 1994 to 1997 the West had one fewer team, and from 1998 to 2012,

8576-401: The ensuing injury, the Missouri Supreme Court called the dangers of being struck by a foul ball "open and obvious to any one who possesses normal powers of observation. A knowledge of the rules or strategy of the game is not necessary to a realization of such hazard." A Pennsylvania Superior Court panel echoed Keys in 1953's Schentzel v. Philadelphia National League Club when it overturned

8704-500: The entire appellate opinion. A 1930 incident concerned a ball hit fairly , though not during the actual game. The plaintiff went to a game in New Orleans and bought a ticket to the bleachers, 158 feet (48 m) from home plate and protected by a five-foot-high (1.5 m) screen at field level. While walking to his seat before the game, he was hit by a ball from batting practice , to which he had not paid attention, and his jaw

8832-579: The evolution to modern pitching was completed when overhand pitching was allowed. Consequently it became much harder for hitters to direct the ball into fair territory when they connected with it. More teams began erecting backstops , as they came to be called, similar to those the Grays had put up, but they were not always popular with fans. The Milwaukee Northwestern League team removed theirs after two weeks of fan complaints that they unduly obstructed their view of play. Fatalities from foul balls occurred in

8960-501: The facts of the case and agreed to try it as a question of law . The trial court held for the team; Crane appealed. The Kansas City Division of the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed the judgement. Citing the Michigan Supreme Court's 1908 dictum , it held that Crane had assumed the risks of watching a baseball game when he chose to attend. Since given a choice between protected and unprotected seats, Crane chose

9088-404: The field, critics note that it is no longer possible for spectators to choose to sit under those screens given that all seats in the venue are reserved for those who buy them, many for the entire season . Further, they say, balls are hit harder and spectators, who on average now sit closer to the field than they did in 1913, have more distractions. Two states' supreme courts have declined to adopt

9216-482: The field, holding that that too was part of the game. "The danger of a ball thrown by a spectator toward the playing field while play is in session seems to us to be an ordinary hazard of the game" wrote the court in Emhardt v. Perry Stadium , noting also that the plaintiff had testified she and her husband had regularly attended games at the park for four years prior to the 1937 incident. It affirmed summary judgement for

9344-524: The first time heard a case against a baseball team arising from a foul ball injury incurred by a paying spectator at the game. Three years earlier, Samuel Crane had gone to a home game of the Kansas City Blues , an American Association class AA minor league team, at Association Park in Kansas City, Missouri . At the ticket counter, he had the choice of a seat in the bleachers , beyond the outfield fence, for 25¢ ($ 10 in today's dollars) or in

9472-426: The game could not also be strong enough to stop all foul balls, and that Edling had also been contributorily negligent by failing to keep track of the ball that had hit him after it had been hit (to that, Edling's lawyer responded that if the Blues' players had kept their eyes on the ball as well as the team's lawyers said Edling should have, the team would have had a much better season). The jury found for Edling and

9600-533: The game. But as in the Texas case, the Pennsylvania court did not find it plausible at that time that the plaintiff could be ignorant of the fact that foul balls went into the stands, her testimony that the game was the first she had ever attended and the minimal amount of time she and her husband had been at the game notwithstanding. Starting from the premise that she was a middle-aged woman of normal intelligence,

9728-425: The help of gradual rule changes that allowed the ball to be delivered from higher up, with the arm more cocked, making the first curveballs possible. Injuries in the stands from foul balls in the late 1870s earned the area behind home plate the nickname of "the slaughter pit"; the National League 's Providence Grays became the first team to erect a protective screen over that section of their park in 1879. In 1884

9856-670: The ineffective National Commission with a one-man Commissioner in the person of federal Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis . The National League circuit remained unchanged from 1900 through 1952. In 1953 the Braves moved from Boston to Milwaukee ; in 1966 they moved again, to Atlanta . In 1958 the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants moved to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively, bringing major league baseball to

9984-399: The institution of interleague play, little remains to differentiate between the two leagues. By 2011, MLB had changed its policy on interleague play, deciding to schedule interleague games throughout the season rather than only during specially designated periods. This policy would allow each league to have 15 teams, with one team in each league playing an interleague game on any given day. As

10112-606: The last day of the St. Louis Browns ' 1931 season at Sportsman's Park , Violet Grimes attended, with a date, and chose to sit near third base at field level, well outside the area screened behind home plate. To accommodate extra crowds expected for that year's World Series , in which the Cardinals , who shared the park with the Browns, were hosting the first two games against the Philadelphia Athletics starting

10240-407: The late 19th and early 20th centuries; many of those struck and killed were children watching or otherwise in proximity to amateur games. In one unusual 1902 incident, a 20-year-old Ohio man watching a game was stabbed through the heart when a friend who was lending him a knife was struck by a foul ball as he did; after telling his friends he was not badly hurt, he began bleeding uncontrollably and died

10368-420: The latter (for the unobstructed view, the court speculated), there was contributory negligence on his part and the team was not liable. "One invited to a place who is offered a choice of two positions one of which is less safe than the other cannot be said to be in the exercise of reasonable care if, with full knowledge of the risks and dangers, he chooses the more dangerous place", wrote Judge W.O. Jackson. "That

10496-527: The latter line when the Minnesota Supreme Court heard Brisson v. Minneapolis Baseball & Athletic Association in 1932. It settled two questions Crane and the courts that relied on it had not. Brisson alleged that he had intended to sit in the protected area, but found all the seats there filled. So he sat instead in an unprotected seat, where like the other plaintiffs he was hit by a foul ball and injured. He argued that Crane required

10624-730: The league: the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves (originally in Boston, and later Milwaukee). The Cubs are the only charter member to play continuously in the same city. The other two pre-1892 teams still in the league are the Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants (originally New York), both of which joined in 1883. The National League became a 12-team circuit with monopoly status for

10752-549: The merger, the NL absorbed the St. Louis Browns (now known as the St. Louis Cardinals ), along with three other teams that did not survive into the 20th century—the Baltimore Orioles (not the current MLB team), Louisville Colonels , and Washington Statesmen . While four teams that moved from the AA remain in the NL today (Pittsburgh [1887], Cincinnati [1890], Los Angeles [originally Brooklyn; 1890], and St. Louis [1892]), only two original NL franchises (1876) remain in

10880-466: The more "traditional" league, a reputation most exemplified by the NL's more prevalent use of " smallball " tactics and lack of a designated hitter rule, which the AL implemented in 1973. However, with the advent of free agency in the 1970s allowing for more player movement between leagues, and the introduction of regular season interleague play in 1997, the difference in play between the two major leagues has diminished considerably. The NL's adoption of

11008-474: The new league, but reality set in as talent and money was split between the two leagues, diluting the league and decreasing financial success. After two years of bitter contention, a new version of the National Agreement was signed in 1903. This meant formal acceptance of each league by the other as an equal partner in major-league baseball, mutual respect of player contracts, and an agreement to play

11136-419: The newly christened American League (AL) when the minor Western League changed its name to the AL in 1900, with the approval of the NL, which regarded the AL as a lesser league since they were a party to the National Agreement. The AL declined to renew its National Agreement membership when it expired the next year, and on January 28, 1901, the AL officially declared itself a second major league in competition with

11264-487: The next day, temporary wooden seats had been built and added, extending 15 feet (4.6 m) into the field. In the second game of a doubleheader with the Chicago White Sox a foul ball ricocheted off the railing on the temporary seating and into Grimes' eye. Grimes prevailed at trial and was awarded $ 5,000 by the jury ($ 100,200 in today's dollars). The Browns appealed; the court upheld the verdict, noting that

11392-500: The offices of American League and National League presidents were discontinued and all authority was vested in the Commissioner's office. The leagues subsequently appointed "honorary" presidents to carry out ceremonial roles such as the awarding of league championship trophies. Additionally, the distinction between AL and NL umpires was erased, and instead all umpires were unified under MLB control. Following these actions, as well as

11520-540: The opinions to its website when they are issued. There are fourteen judges in the Eastern District, eleven judges in the Western District, and seven judges in the Southern District. Judges are selected via the Missouri Plan . Often, a district will have fewer judges than normal because of a vacancy, which occurs after a sitting judge leaves the Court and before a new judge can be appointed. Under

11648-445: The park to meet unusual conditions and which was not even designed or intended to serve a purpose at the game plaintiff was attending." Overall, in the two decades after Crane courts in six more states would rely on it as precedent and reaffirm that reliance; by the 1930s it was seen as a seminal case in the area of landowner liability, specifically the liability of sporting venue operators. The most significant of those cases came from

11776-475: The park", he comments, "the team was obligated not only to provide protected seats for fans who desired them but also to maintain those seats in a reasonable manner." Crane became precedent outside Missouri before Edling was even heard there. Later in 1913, the Minnesota Supreme Court considered a case, like Crane's, brought by a spectator who had chosen to sit in an unprotected area of

11904-468: The plaintiff in Kavafian v. Seattle Baseball Club Association had initially argued that the team's negligence lay in having changed its mind about where to put screening, as Kavafian's seat was located in an area of the stadium originally intended to have it. Per Crane , the court again found that as long as the team had made some protected seats available a spectator who chose not to sit there assumed all

12032-400: The possibility of injury from a foul ball, but the court did not distinguish her case from Crane's on that basis. Washington's Supreme Court relied on Crane in 1919 to reverse an earlier case in which it had allowed an injured spectator to proceed with his suit. The circumstances were similar—the plaintiff had chosen to sit in unprotected seating where protected seats had been available—but

12160-457: The presence of the pitcher in the NL batting order. As the collective bargaining agreement came closer to expiring after the 2021 season, owners expressed their intentions to use the designated hitter in all games starting in 2022. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, rule changes were instituted in both leagues for the 2020 season , which included an abbreviated 60-game schedule,

12288-442: The public, like sporting venues, but on the property with the owner's permission, as licensees . The property owner owed them no other duty of care than to protect them from unforeseeable hazards incident to the conditions of the property. That standard would have likely precluded any suit over injuries from a foul ball as they were a foreseeable risk. However, in 1866 an English court 's decision, Indermaur v. Dames , held that

12416-431: The relationship between team and spectator in the area of foul ball risk and protection. By screening off some of the seats, a team implicitly guaranteed to the spectators who chose to sit behind the screen that it would be in sufficient condition to protect them from foul ball injuries, unless (as the team claimed Edling had) they knowingly remained in front of a defective portion. "While not obligated to screen every seat in

12544-402: The rest of the decade. The league became embroiled in numerous internal conflicts, not the least of which was a plan supported by some owners (and bitterly opposed by others) to form a "trust", wherein there would be one common ownership of all twelve teams. The NL used its monopsony power to force a $ 2,400 ($ 85,000 today) limit on annual player wages in 1894. As the 20th century dawned, the NL

12672-450: The risk of the injury that befell her. At trial the judge granted the team's motion for a directed verdict in their favor after Quinn presented her case. On appeal the court took note that while protected seats were available elsewhere in the grandstand, she had nonetheless insisted on sitting near first base, and upheld the ruling, saying that she had temporarily assumed the risk. The California Supreme Court agreed and saw fit to reprint

12800-484: The risk. In 1929 the Supreme Court in neighboring Oregon was confronted with a first-impression variation on the foul-ball injury. A man who had attended a game in Portland four years earlier and sat near the edge of a 150-foot (46 m) screen was nevertheless struck and permanently injured by a foul ball that curved behind it. At trial he had prevailed and been awarded $ 3,000 ($ 52,000 in today's dollars), which

12928-475: The rule, which has been criticized as a relic of the era before the adoption of comparative negligence ; a widely read William and Mary Law Review article further argues that the Baseball Rule fails the law and economics standards of optimally allocated tort liability. Professional baseball in the United States began in 1869. In those early years, there was little risk of injury from a ball hit into

13056-504: The screen, and at some point during the game was struck by a foul ball and injured; the details are not known. Crane later filed suit in Jackson County Circuit Court , arguing that the Blues had been negligent and seeking $ 100 in damages ($ 3,100 in today's dollars) plus court costs ; their duty of reasonable care to him required that they screen off all the grandstand seats. He and the team stipulated to

13184-406: The second, decided a year later, the court upheld a verdict for a plaintiff who had been struck in the eye by a foul ball that passed through a hole in the netting between him and home plate. Other state courts accepted those cases as precedent and used them to decide similar cases. By the 1930s it was interpreted as requiring teams to erect protective screening over the stands behind home plate,

13312-632: The stability of the AA. Other new leagues that rose to compete with the National League were the Union Association and the Players' League . The Union Association was established in 1884 and folded after playing only one season, its league champion St. Louis Maroons joining the NL. The Players' League was established in 1890 by the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players, the sport's first players' union, which had failed to persuade

13440-439: The stands and been injured by a foul ball. The plaintiff, a woman who was attending a baseball game for the first time ever on Ladies' Day , had won in the lower courts, but the state's highest court overturned the verdict, citing the case's similarities to Crane and quoting from that opinion extensively. Unlike Crane, the plaintiff argued that she had had no familiarity with the game and thus should at least have been warned about

13568-494: The stands of the South End Grounds started a fire. The blaze quickly got out of hand and swept through downtown Boston, destroying or damaging 100 buildings. Team owners argued with each other, and players hated the NL's $ 2,400 salary cap. Many teams also ran into trouble with city governments that forbade recreational activities on Sunday . Billy Sunday , a prominent outfielder in the 1880s, became so disgusted with

13696-406: The stands. While seats were located as close as a few feet (1–2 m) from the foul lines , putting fans at risk of being hit by overthrown balls or lost bats, there was less risk from batted balls. At the time, the rules required pitchers to not only deliver the ball underhand, but with their arms barely bent and from below the waist. In addition, batters could and did request the ball be pitched to

13824-717: The state capital of Albany, New York ), Worcester ( Massachusetts ), Boston , and Providence . In 1883, new New York and Philadelphia clubs began National League play. Both teams remain in the NL today, the Phillies in their original city and the New York franchise (later named Giants) now in San Francisco since 1958. The NL encountered its first strong rival organization when the American Association began play in 1882. The AA played in cities where

13952-537: The state's only intermediate appellate courthouse. The address is 1300 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri 64106-2970. The Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, is located in the Hammons Building in Springfield, Missouri. The address is 300 Hammons Parkway, Springfield, Missouri 65806. National League (baseball) The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs , known simply as

14080-457: The struggling league. By 1880, six of the eight charter members had folded. The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain still in operation today as the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs . When all eight participants for 1881 returned for 1882—the first off-season without turnover in membership—the "circuit" consisted of a zig-zag line connecting the eight cities: Chicago , Detroit , Cleveland , Buffalo , Troy (near

14208-405: The team partially negligent in that the usher who had directed her and her son to the seats did not warn them there was no protection there from foul balls, the court disagreed with claim of ignorance of the hazard, noting that the record showed that her son, aged 14, had gone to other games at the park and often played or threw baseballs in and around the home, suggesting "he was a baseball 'fan', as

14336-433: The team to ensure that protected seats were available for any spectator who wanted one; thus, the lack of availability of such seats negated any assumption of risk on his part. A verdict in the plaintiff's favor, too, was appealed again to the state's highest court and overturned, as the justices believed that reasonable care did not require making unprotected seats available for anyone who wanted them. What it did require

14464-405: The three judges declining to distinguish night games. "If the risk was greater due to the fact that it was a night game played under artificial lights, by the same token the plaintiff was under greater obligation to protect himself by seeking a position of safety behind screens." The dissenting judge argued that that was a factual question a jury should have been allowed to decide, saying "it would be

14592-412: The turn of the century, but none were reported. They may have been disposed through settlement, trial or withdrawal. It has also been suggested that the law concerning torts brought by public invitees such as spectators at a baseball game was not seen as favorable to such suits. Up to the time of baseball's origins in the United States, common law treated those on private property not generally open to

14720-417: The use of the designated hitter in all games, and expanded rosters. The National League reverted to its old batting rules during the 2021 season , but starting with the 2022 season , they permanently adopted the designated hitter rule after a new CBA was ratified. For the first 96 years of its coexistence with the American League, National League teams faced their AL counterparts only in exhibition games,

14848-399: Was a factual dispute as to the condition of the screen—the team claimed it was new and in perfect condition, while fans who had attended other games testified that it had had many holes which had gone unrepaired for a long time—the case was heard by a jury. The team mounted two other defenses: that even in perfect condition a screen unobtrusive enough to not detract from spectators' enjoyment of

14976-430: Was an invitee, and that the defendant, a dance hall, had a duty to maintain the premises safely. Legal scholar Seymour Thompson wrote in a popular work on tort law that the duties of business owners towards invitees, or business visitors as they were now known, applied with "special force to ... establishments to which the public are invited in large numbers." As the 20th century dawned, courts had applied that principle to

15104-525: Was broken. The following year the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld a judgement for the team, finding the case fundamentally similar to Crane , with the plaintiff's inattention to the game similarly constituting contributory negligence and the team having satisfied its duty as the grandstand was already properly screened. In one unusual case, also from Missouri, a court did hold that a plaintiff sitting in unprotected seating could recover. On

15232-458: Was disputed by some, such as former Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland , who claimed that the American League is more difficult because AL managers are required to know exactly when to pull a pitcher, whereas an NL manager merely pulls his pitcher when that spot comes up in the batting order. Overall, there were fewer home runs and runs scored in the National League than in the American, due to

15360-546: Was established with eight charter members, as follows: The National League's formation meant the end of the old National Association after only five seasons, as its remaining clubs shut down or reverted to amateur or minor league status. The only strong club from 1875 excluded in 1876 was a second one in Philadelphia, often called the White Stockings or later Phillies . The first game in National League history

15488-411: Was guilty of negligence." "We must also ignore the suggestion that [screening capable of blocking all foul balls would be too hard to see through]", the court said. Evidence at trial, it explained, had shown that a mesh of chicken wire similar to that used at Association Park could stop any batted ball with minimal impact on spectators' view, when properly maintained. Citing Edling's attorney's comment,

15616-474: Was in trouble. Conduct among players was poor, and fistfights were a common sight at games. In addition to fighting each other, they fought with the umpires and often filled the air at games with foul language and obscenities. A game between the Orioles and Boston Beaneaters (a precursor to today's Atlanta Braves) in 1894 ended up having tragic consequences when players became engaged in a brawl and several boys in

15744-498: Was inconvenient to them. William A. Hulbert (1832–1882), a Chicago businessman and an officer of the Chicago White Stockings of 1870–1889, approached several NA clubs with the plans for a professional league for the sport of baseball with a stronger central authority and exclusive territories in larger cities only. Additionally, Hulbert had a problem: five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from

15872-412: Was not part of that, thus they could not be expected to have knowledge of the risks it posed and there was no nonfeasance . The following year, Michigan's Supreme Court took judicial notice , in a case brought by a patron injured by a foul ball from a nearby game while dancing at a resort, of the inherent risks of watching a baseball game and that every spectator assumed them by choosing to watch: It

16000-637: Was played on April 22, 1876, at Philadelphia 's Jefferson Street Grounds , at 25th & Jefferson Streets, between the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston baseball club. Boston won the game 6–5. The new league's authority was soon tested after the first season. The Athletic and Mutual clubs fell behind in the standings and refused to make western road trips late in the season, preferring to play games against local non-league competition to recoup some of their financial losses rather than travel extensively incurring more costs. Hulbert reacted to

16128-403: Was that teams make a reasonable amount of such seats available as to satisfy the typical demand for them, and that the "most dangerous" area of the stands be so screened. While the Minnesota Supreme Court did not specify any part of the stands at a baseball game, later courts more explicitly stated this to be the seats behind home plate, which had already been screened at most baseball parks since

16256-443: Was told by the usher that none were available at that time, so she sat in an unprotected seat expecting the usher would find a protected one. A foul ball hit by Gus Suhr struck and injured her. She sued not only the club but Suhr, the first reported instance in which a plaintiff named a batter as a defendant in addition to the team in a foul ball tort, arguing that since she had requested a protected seat she had not voluntarily assumed

16384-481: Was upheld on appeal. However, the state Supreme Court held that such an unusual trajectory for a foul ball was so unforeseeable that the team could not reasonably be expected to protect spectators from a ball so hit and vacated the award. Joan Quinn, a San Francisco teenager who attended a 1929 game of the Pacific Coast League 's Seals at Recreation Park , asked to be seated behind the screen but

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