Stephen King’s a big fan of the Boston Red Sox, not so much of what the team’s doing.
After two incidents last season when fans were struck by a flying bat and ball, Major League Baseball recommended netting for this season.
In an editorial published by The Boston Globe Monday the 68-year-old horror novelist made it clear he doesn’t like what this will do for the view from his dugout season’s tickets.
”When do safety precautions begin to steal away the pure joy of being there?”
King goes on to say he understands the Red Sox bear some responsibility, but that he also accepts the responsibility to take care of himself.
”There’s also the chance that you can catch a foul ball instead of being hit by one. That chance goes away once the net is in place. In fact, a lot goes away. That netting may be a fine mesh, but you’re still looking through a barrier instead of right at the thing you came to see. Which means you’d do almost as well to sit home watching the game on TV.”
King also says there’s something almost ludicrous about wrapping America’s baseball stadiums in protective gauze when any idiot with a grudge can buy a gun and shoot a bunch of people, adding he’d rather see something done about that.
His editorial concludes with King saying he’ll keep his ”expensive real estate” at Fenway but that the netting is ”one more step toward taking the taste and texture out of the game I care for above all others. The bottom line? That net feels like paying good money to sit in a cage.”