PITTSBURGH — An unidentified male fan fell from the 21-foot Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park during Wednesday night’s game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs.
Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track.
The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart.
The team issued a statement shortly after the game ended saying the man was transported to Allegheny General Hospital. No further details were given.
Players from both teams could be seen praying and McCutchen held a cross that hung from his neck while the fan was taken off the field. The game was paused for several minutes while the man was tended to but there was no official stoppage in play.
Fans have died from steep falls at baseball stadiums.
In 2015, Atlanta Braves season ticket holder Gregory K. Murrey flipped over guard rails from the . That was four years after Shannon Stone, a firefighter attending a game with his 6-year-old son, fell about 20 feet after reaching out for a foul ball tossed into the stands at the Texas Rangers’ former stadium.
Both incidents prompted scrutiny over the height of guard rails at stadiums. The Rangers raised theirs, while the Braves settled a lawsuit with Murrey’s family.
A spectator at died following a fall on an escalator.
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