Shannon Stone, 39, a veteran Texas firefighter fell headfirst to his death from the stands at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, TX while trying to catch a foul baseball tossed by American League MVP Josh Hamilton.
Stone fell 20 feet in the presence of his young son and a crowd of over 35,000 fans after another fan’s failed attempt to rescue him.
“He went straight down,” said Ronnie Hargis, a fan who was sitting alongside Stone at the game. “I tried to grab him, but I couldn’t. I tried to slow him down a little bit.”
Stone went into full cardiac arrest in the ambulance.
“He said, ‘Please check on my son. My son was up there by himself,'” said Oakland reliever Brad Ziegler. “We assumed he was OK.”
Television replays show Stone apparently making the grab before losing his balance and falling. He landed behind a wall that supports a video screen, which prevented fans from seeing him hit the ground.
One year ago, a fan at Rangers Ballpark survived a 30-foot fall while trying to catch a foul ball.
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