Spectators’ injury lawsuits against ballclubs face legal hurdles such … – Chicago Tribune

Juanita DeJesus never saw the ball coming.

DeJesus was sitting along the first base line at a 2009 minor-league baseball game in Gary, Ind., when an infield fly struck her in the face just as she looked up to spot the ball. The impact broke several bones in her face and resulted in permanent blindness in her left eye.

Her injuries were strikingly similar to those recently suffered by John “Jay” Loos, a Schaumburg man who filed a negligence lawsuit against the Chicago Cubs this week after also being blinded in his left eye when he was hit by a foul ball while sitting in an seat down the first base line in the outfield at Wrigley Field in late August.

“I had no idea that you were subjected to such missiles and the rate of speed that a ball can come into the stands,” Loos, 60, told reporters Monday. “In the stands, you know, you are sitting behind the plate, you can’t tell when the ball is contacted, you can’t tell where the ball is going, you can’t tell the rate of speed it’s going until it’s on top of you.”