02 Jan 2004 Legal Briefs newsletter #37: Turning a Line Drive into a Home Run

Writing in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Professor Ralph Reiland of Robert Morris University tells the story of an Illinois high school pitcher, Danny Hannant, who was hit in the head by a line drive. Rather than blame himself for failing to catch the ball, Hannant sued the manufacturer of the bat. Says Reiland, “Seeking in excess of $1 million, Hannant’s lawyer argued that the company should have put labels on its Louisville Slugger bats warning that the product ‘could cause a baseball to be propelled with such velocity that when hit directly towards a pitcher it does not allow the pitcher sufficient reaction time to avoid being struck.'”

-Source: Ralph Reiland, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 15, 2003