MLB Recommends Metal Detectors At Ballparks

There's been no official word from the Cubs on what they plan to do regarding security at Wrigley Field in 2014, but this report indicates metal detectors might be in your ballpark-visit future:

Major League Baseball security director John Skinner said on Friday that all 30 teams are expected to screen all fans entering their ballparks next season. Some aspects of the screening will be left to individual teams, but the commissioner's office is planning to recommend walk-through metal detectors, he said.

"It's the reality, unfortunately, of this world," Skinner said at the Ivy Sports Symposium at the Harvard Law School. "Ultimately, it will happen."

The cause of all this, as you might have guessed, stems from last spring's Boston Maraton bombings, which made a lot of sports teams and leagues re-assess security procedures. As you likely know if you've attended NFL games this year, that league has changed its security procedures and severely limited what people can bring into NFL stadiums (a little bit of overkill, in my view).

It's coming, though, to MLB, according to the link above:

Skinner told The Associated Press after the panel that baseball will be making a presentation to its teams at the winter meetings in December in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Asked for more details, MLB spokesman Michael Teevan said the plans are still developing.

"We have been reviewing our security procedures for many months and we will issue a security bulletin in 2014 that will include practices and procedures that are responsive to the new security environment," Teevan said in an email. "Fan screening will be one of the subjects addressed. We are continuing to consult with our clubs, our experts and the Department of Homeland Security, and we expect to announce specific changes after some further off-season meetings."

What Skinner says is true, sadly; our world has changed and its realities likely mean we'll have to have more intrusive searches at ballparks. We are lucky that there have been no incidents at sports stadiums up to now.

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