If the “fan” had worked on his baseball fundamentals AT ALL, he could have just caught the hot dog…. how do you not see a hot dog coming at your face? Honestly.

Also, the last line in the article just slayed me!!

“Coomer is now suing the Royals for more than $25k for negligence and battery — claiming they ‘failed to adequately train its agents … in the proper method in which to throw hotdogs into the stands at Kauffman Stadium.’”

I’d love to hear the description of the “proper method” for throwing a hot dog. Are there any hot dog throwing experts his lawyer can call as witnesses?

BTW, I hope the goomer who’s suing isn’t related to Ron Coomer.

It would have done more damage if he’d actually eaten it.

After a nasty, L-O-N-G day at work, I needed a good LMAO!!

Yes, I assume this happened between innings. Minor league ballparks do this sort of thing as one of the planned between inning activities. Major league teams have borrowed a lot of marketing & entertainment ideas from the minors.

Hot dog cannons are designed to propel hot dogs or similar materials into the air with great force through the use of pressurized gas. Normally, the hot dogs are shot high into the stands in a long arc so as to dissipate the force. These machines are known to break down and malfunction- usually right when you need them to work correctly during the actual live activity. I’m guessing based on the description, that this may be the reason why the mascot began throwing the hot dogs into the stands by hand. Some teams use “slingshots”. Again, those too can propel materials into the stands with great force.

Some ballparks shoot redeemable coupons for concession stand hotdogs – instead of shooting the actual edible variety. This is done locally at our minor league park by attaching the coupon to a day-old FROZEN hotdog, all wrapped up tightly. If the person who got hit in the eye, got hit with a frozen hotdog (even if it was just thrown by hand), I can see how an injury could occur.

Mascots (at least at the minor league level) are often local teens or 20-somethings wearing hot, smelly costumes with poor visibility and poor hand dexterity. While an accident like this would seem unlikely when you first hear about it, it can happen.

And this isn’t a case of a volunteer who has signed a release form being injured. Fans who agree to participate in between inning activities like the “Dizzy Bat Race” or other similar staged events are required to sign release forms first to prevent teams from being sued if the volunteer got injured.

The fan in this case was (apparently) just sitting in their seat.

While the lawsuit may seem trivial and silly, I think teams (at least in the minors) will be watching what happens with this case.