PITTSBURGH – A man who fell from the Clemente wall of 21 feet high on the right field to the PNC Park during the Wednesday evening match between the Pirates of Pittsburgh and the Cubs of Chicago remained in critical condition on Thursday morning.
Pittsburgh Public Safety, which includes the police and Pittsburgh EMS, posted on X Thursday that “the incident is treated as an accidental of nature”.
The unidentified man fell on the warning track in the right field, just like the star of the pirates Andrew McCutchen hit a double of two points in seventh round to put Pittsburgh at 4-3. The players began to switches frantically for the medical staff and pointing to the man.
The fan was tend to around five minutes by members of pirate training staff and Cubs as well as PNC staff before being removed from the field on a cart. He was taken to the trauma center of the Allegheny General Hospital, where he stayed on Thursday.
The owner of Pittsburgh, Bob Nutting, said that the club was “deeply saddened” and “really the broken heart” on what it called a “terrible accident”.
“In moments like these, we have to come together, support each other and keep it as well as his loved ones in our prayers,” Nutting said in a statement. “We also want to thank and appreciate the efforts of the first stakeholders who rushed to his attention and provided him with compassionate care.”
The balustrade that runs along the Clemente wall in the right field is three feet (36 inches) in height, which exceeds the requirements of the 26-inch building code, according to the vice-president of communications by pirates Brian Warecki.
The fans were seated in the first row above the Clement wall Thursday before the final of the series between the two teams.
The director of pirates, Derek Shelton, and the manager of Cubs, Craig Counsell, alerted the crew of the referees of the situation immediately after the room.
“Even if it is 350 feet distance or anything, I mean the fact of how it happened and then go to bed motionless while the room takes place, I mean that Craig saw it, I saw it. We both arrived there,” said Shelton. “I think the referees saw him because of the way he kicked. It is extremely unhappy. It is an understatement. “
The players of the two teams could be seen while praying and McCutchen held a cross hanging around his neck while the fan was removed from the field.
The quintuple All-Star said Thursday that the team was “devastated” and that it had prayed together after the match. Invited to describe his point of view of the sequence, McCutchen refused, saying that he is trying not to think about it and that he is more focused on human health.
“We just hope the best for him,” he said. “I hope it will end because it is the reason why we are here. It is the reason why we play the game. People who show their support so that we can do something we love, partly because of him and because of the fans. So, I just pray that he is fine.”
The match was arrested for several minutes while the man was maintained, but there was no official stop at stake.
The curl stop inby Swanson had been involved in the game during the incident, trying to make a dive stop in the middle and accidentally hit the ball in a shallow right field, causing the double of McCutchen. This sequence prevented him from seeing what happened with the fall, but Swanson quickly understood the severity of the situation when he saw the urgency of the team training staff and his gaze on the face of Counsell when he left the shelter.
“A very scary moment,” said Swanson. “You see that everyone takes a knee and pray and hope everything is fine. Obviously, we just pray for good strong recovery, just to be with him and his family. I have never been part of something like that, and let’s obviously never be part of something like that again.
“It is really a kind of humble reminder, just the gratitude that we can be able to play this game and there are so many people who obviously support us and came to games and are a great reason for which we are able to do what we do. It is obviously difficult and simply put things in perspective and makes you want to tell everyone that you love them and never take this to grant.”
Counsell has also seen only the consequences of the fall of the fan and echoes the hope of Swanson that the man is OK.
“I am thinking of his family and of him right now – obviously scary,” said Counsell. “I don’t think we know what we have seen, what we saw is that someone went on the warning track. So you know it’s not good.”
Fans have previously died of steep falls at baseball stages.
In 2015, the holder of Atlanta Braves season tickets, Gregory K. Murrey, changed guard rails from the Turner Field top bridge. It was four years after Shannon Stone, a firefighter attending a match with his 6 -year -old son, fell to around 20 feet after holding his hand for a shown ball thrown into the stands of the old Texas Rangers stadium.
The two incidents caused a meticulous examination on the height of the railings in the stadiums. The Rangers raised theirs, while the brave regulated a lawsuit with the Murrey family.
A spectator in an NFL match in 2022 at the Acrisure stadium in Pittsburgh died following a fall on an escalator.
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