By Jason Slade Brown*
Consisting of fifteen Spring Training facilities, several minor league franchises, and two Major League Baseball (“MLB”) teams, Florida is a hotbed for professional baseball. With the recent media attention on foul ball injuries, MLB’s recommendation that protective netting be extended to the foul poles, and Florida’s tort reform, this Article analyzes Florida’s relationship with professional baseball and urges the codification of the “Baseball Rule.” Under a century of common law precedent, the baseball rule serves as a full defense to litigation so long as the stadium owner provides protective netting across the most dangerous sections of the stadium and fans who desire protected seats have a choice in sitting in those sections. Florida, unlike other states with significant professional baseball footprints, has never addressed the baseball rule either by statute or through case law. As a result, this Article urges the Florida legislature to act proactively, by aligning Florida with several other states, in adopting the baseball rule as a full bar to litigation. Relying on several other state codifications of the baseball rule, this Article presents the Florida legislature with a statutory framework that balances stadium owners’ liability with fans’ desires to watch baseball games unobstructed.