The Frisco RoughRiders’ season is just underway and the team is hoping it’s a year that will be a bit safer for fans. WTV’s Wade Glover has the details.

In addition to becoming the only baseball park in the nation to build a lazy river pool, the RoughRiders decided to add more netting on the first and third baselines to protect fans from foul balls and flying bats.

The netting is expected to provide protection for an additional 2,000 fans. The new net reaches a height of 28 feet above the playing field.

“We wanted to be one of the franchises that was out on the forefront of protecting our fans. And, Major League Baseball, the commissioner last offseason, Rob Manfred, came out with some recommendations, and quite honestly, we decided we were going to go a lot further than those recommendations,” RoughRiders general Manager Jason Dambach said. “We’ve extended the netting from the end of each dugout, kind of one net that goes all the way from first base to third base. I’d say the reaction overall has been overwhelmingly positive. Obviously you have a few folks that feel like it may be getting in the way of their viewing experience. But, when you talk to them and explain to them why and that this is really an effort to protect fans from serious injury, 9 times out of 10, that does the trick. So, we feel really proud about what we’ve done here in conjunction with the city of Frisco to add this netting and we feel it’s going to be a great addition to the ballpark by protecting an additional 2,000 seats that weren’t protected before.”

Reporting for WTV, I’m Wade Glover.