[dropcap size=big]A[/dropcap] SoCal woman died last August after she was hit in the head by a foul ball over the first base side of home plate at Dodger Stadium, according to a report by ESPN.
But the tragic accident at Dodger Stadium was not known to the public. Television coverage of the Padres-Dodgers game that night did not follow the flight of the ball or show where it ended up. No media outlet had reported what happened before the ESPN story.
Linda Goldbloom, 79, was a mother of three and grandmother of seven. She is the third person in U.S. baseball history to die after being struck by a foul ball in professional play. Two of those three incidents have now occurred at Dodger Stadium.
Goldbloom – a long-time Dodgers fan – was at the game celebrating her recent birthday and her 59th wedding anniversary on August 25, 2018. An L.A. County Coroner's report states the cause of death as “acute intracranial hemorrhage due to history of blunt force trauma” and states that the injury occurred when she was struck in the head with a baseball during the game.
The accident happened in the top of the ninth inning, when San Diego’s Franmil Reyes fouled away a 93 mph pitch from Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen. The foul ball had sailed into the Loge Level, and just over the area protected by netting, before it had struck Goldbloom’s head as she sat in section 106, row C, seat 5.