Rangers fan dies after fall reaching for ball

Police and fans look over the railing where a fan fell from the stands during the second inning of a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Oakland Athletics, Thursday, July 7, 2011, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffery Washington)

By Stephen Hawkins AP Sports Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas—A Texas Rangers fan died after falling about 20 feet onto concrete reaching out for a baseball tossed his way by All-Star outfielder Josh Hamilton during a game.

The man was at the game Thursday night with his young son, who watched as his dad tumbled over the outfield railing after catching the ball.

Arlington Fire Department officials said the man, who witnesses said was conscious after the fall, "went into full arrest" while being transported by ambulance. He was pronounced dead at a Fort Worth hospital less than an hour after he fell.

"We had a very tragic accident tonight and one of our fans lost their life reaching over the rail trying to get a ball," team president Nolan Ryan said somberly after the Rangers' 6-0 victory over Oakland. "As an organization, and as our team members and our staff, we're very heavy-hearted about this, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."

Neither the Rangers nor Arlington fire officials identified the man.

The Brownwood News reported on its website, citing the Brownwood city manager, that the victim was a firefighter in the city that is about a three-hour drive southwest of Arlington.

Ronnie Hargis was sitting next to the victim in the first row of seats in left field. The men had been talking before the accident. Hargis reached out to try to grab the man, who fell headfirst through a gap of several feet that is between the seats and the 14-foot-high outfield wall.

"He went straight down. I tried to grab him, but I couldn't," Hargis said. "I tried to slow him down a little bit."

The area where the man landed was out of sight from the field.

It is the second fatal fall at a major league stadium this season. In May, a 27-year-old man died after he fell about 20 feet and struck his head on concrete during a Colorado Rockies game. Witnesses told police that the man had been trying to slide down a staircase railing at Coors Field and lost his balance during a game against Arizona.

There was an audible gasp in the stands at Rangers Ballpark when the man tumbled over the rail, eerily similar to an accident there almost exactly a year earlier. Another firefighter fell about 30 feet from the second-deck of seats down the right-field line while trying to catch a foul ball on July 6, 2010.

Tyler Morris, a firefighter from the Lake Cities Fire Department near Dallas, sustained a fractured skull and sprained ankle in that fall last year when he dropped onto seats where other fans were sitting.

The latest accident happened in the second inning after Oakland's Conor Jackson hit a foul ball that ricocheted into left field. Hamilton, the reigning AL MVP elected by fans to start his fourth consecutive All-Star game next week, retrieved the ball and tossed it into the stands as players routinely do.Continued...

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