Colorado Rockies Fan Hit in Eye With Foul Ball is Suing Team, Citing Rockies Are So Bad It's Hard to Pay Attention to The Game
The Denver Post – A Parker man this week sued the Colorado Rockies for negligence after he was struck in the face with a foul ball while sitting in a Coors Field luxury box — in part blaming the team’s poor performance for the injury.
Timothy Roeckel suffered “catastrophic and permanent injuries” when he was hit in the face and right eye by a foul ball during the Rockies’ July 16, 2023, game against the New York Yankees, attorneys for Denver firm Nielsen Weisz wrote in the lawsuit filed Monday in Denver District Court.
I'm always in support of an average Joe filing a frivolous lawsuit against any government entity, major corporation, or professional sports organization with more money than God. If you stumble ass back ways into some unfortunate event that can net you a few hundred thousand dollars, aka a drop in the ocean for the Colorado Rockies, then more power to you. I only wish I could be so lucky as to have Draymond Green charge into the stands and kick me in the jaw. But this Rockies fan suing the team for being hit in the eye with a foul ball... I especially like this guy. For this quote alone.
The Denver Post – The team’s poor track record is also to blame for Roeckel’s injury, the lawsuit states.
“Defendant’s longstanding poor performance on the field (has) contributed to a game-day environment in which spectators, particularly those in luxury suites, are less engaged with the action on the field,” attorneys with Nielsen Weisz wrote.
That’s caused a stadium culture shift toward focusing on socializing, dining and networking, the lawsuit states.
“This cultural shift is not incidental but rather encouraged by (the Rockies’) own marketing and design choices, which emphasize hospitality and off-field amenities over fan vigilance,” Roeckel’s attorneys wrote.
What a creative and clever way to hold a professional sports team accountable for not even trying to put a competitive product on the field. These professional sports organizations print money hand over fist no matter if they have the greatest dynasty the sport has ever seen, or if they've won no more than 25% of their games over the last decade. Sometimes I wonder why I can't just walk into JPMorgan Chase when there's a team for sale and say, "I need $10 billion dollars to buy ____", and they won't give it to me. Because there is a 0% chance that team isn't worth significantly more than that 10 years from now. For that reason, so many ownership groups couldn't care less about winning. They couldn't care less about their diehard fans. And there's nothing to hold them accountable for it. So if this fan can spin the Colorado Rockies being an irrelevant, who-cares-about-winning franchise that couldn't give a shit about being competitive as the reason for him being smoked in the eye with a foul ball and skim even the slightest bit of money off the top, that's a win for fans of hapless franchises everywhere.
Although I will say, of all the terribly performing teams I'd like to see someone go after, the Rockies aren't necessarily on the top of my list. By all accounts, they provide one of the best fan experiences in the game (off the field). A lot of it has to do with the perfect weather. But it's a beautiful stadium in its own right. It's essentially like going to America's nicest outdoor bar that just happens to have a baseball game (where every pop fly winds up 30 feet over the fence due to altitude) happening in the middle of it. Despite having one of the worst starts to a season in the history of professional sports at 8-42, the Rockies rank 18th in attendance. So the Rockies aren't completely saying fuck you to their fans. Unfortunately for them, that only further strengthens this guy's foul-ball-in-eye case. The Rockies stadium experience outweighs the product on the field by so much that one couldn't possibly pay attention to a foul ball screaming 75 mph at their face.
Specifically, the team did not extend netting to protect fans despite being warned about the risk of foul balls by engineers, encouraged “non-spectating behavior” like dining and socializing, mounted televisions that distract fans from the game and designed luxury boxes that obstruct the view of the field.
This guy's lawsuit goes as far as implying the fan experience is so geared towards everything that's going on off the field, that in some locations, it's not even possible to see what's what's happening in the game.
He was a guest of the box owner and did not pay for a ticket.
The foul ball was hit by a Rockies batter in the bottom of the first inning, and Roeckel couldn’t see it coming because of “architectural elements including the ceiling of the luxury box and the overhang of the stadium’s bleacher seats,” the lawsuit states.
“It was not physically possible for (Roeckel) to see the foul ball from the seat in question,” his attorneys wrote.
I appreciate the Rockies effort to give the good people of Denver a fun summer activity 81 nights out of the year, regardless of how poor the baseball is. But being able to sue a pro sports team for sucking at sports is fantastic. Maybe if the Rockies had spent a little more money in free agency they wouldn't be in the position. Surely this lawsuit, which I'm guessing is worth at most maybe a million dollars(?), will totally convince them to empty the bank on Kyle Tucker and a few strong bullpen arms this off-season.
P.S. The complaint he filed with the court on Monday stems from a game in 2023. Ironically, of all the shitty Rockies games he could have been struck with a foul ball at, he just had to be at the one where the Rockies hit two home runs in the bottom of the 11th to come back and beat the Yankees, 8-7. Luckily for his case, he got hit in the first inning. But of all the terrible uncompetitive Rockies games he could have got hit in the eye at… that's a tough one to miss.
FOS – The complaint says the fan was struck during the first inning; the Rockies won the game 8–7 in 11 innings.