Yankee Stadium is his field of screams.
Upper West Side developer Andy Zlotnick was sitting in Section 12 on Aug. 25, 2011, about 200 feet from home plate in the right-field stands, when a screaming line drive off the bat of slugger Hideki Matsui came at him like a rocket.
The vicious foul ball destroyed his left eye socket and fractured his cheekbone. It “felt like a mortar exploded in my face,” he told The Post this week.
When he heard about the little girl who was recently injured by a 105-mph Todd Frazier foul ball, he “got a knot” in his stomach.
His first reaction was, “Oh my God … I knew that I could have died from my blow. She was closer and smaller and had even less ability to react.”
Zlotnick, 56, was at the game with his then 12-year-old son, Matt, and his son’s buddies. In the third inning it began to pour, and a “sea of umbrellas” obstructed his view. He never saw the ball coming.
“I heard the crack of the bat, and there was a woman behind me who yelled ‘Watch out!’ and all I heard was an explosion on the side of my face,” Zlotnick recalled. “It knocked me out of my seat. “
Zlotnick lay on the ground in agony, thinking he had lost an eye.
“I was … yelling and screaming to get a doctor.”
Unlike the case of the little girl, no one raced to Zlotnick’s aid, players on the field didn’t react with shock and concern, and the game didn’t pause a beat.
When an usher informed the bleeding Zlotnick that they wouldn’t be able to get a stretcher or wheelchair to his section, he picked himself up and, boys in tow, made his way to the bowels of the stadium, where he was finally ushered to an ambulance.
Six days later Zlotnick underwent “major plastic surgery.” He was out of work for months. He has retina damage and titanium plates in his cheekbones. “I have pain every waking minute,” he said.
‘I heard the crack of the bat, and there was a woman behind me who yelled ‘Watch out!’ and all I heard was an explosion on the side of my face.’
Zlotnick said he never heard from “Mr. Matsui” and it was a month before a Yankee rep reached out to see how he was doing. Zlotnick met with Yankees’ President Randy Levine in November 2011 to express his concerns over stadium safety.
Zlotnick also noted that his medical bills had soared to about $160,000 and asked if the Yankees would consider covering his $25,000 out-of-pocket expenses. Levine said, “Send me the bills.”
When he followed up with Levine early the next year, Zlotnick claimed the Yankee executive told him: “My insurance folks told me not to talk to you anymore.”
Zlotnick sued the Yankees and Major League Baseball nine months later, challenging the so-called “Baseball Rule” that dictates fans attend games at their own risk. He believes the Yankees should have done more to make fans safe, including having a policy against open umbrellas in the stands. He advocates for protective netting from home plate all the way to the foul pole — like in Japan.
He lost his case. But his appeal is being heard in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday.
A legal victory would “send shockwaves throughout baseball,” said Bob Gorman, author of “Death At the Ballpark,” a comprehensive study of 150 years of game-related fatalities.
“It’s unconscionable that the Yankees haven’t put up [extended] the netting,” he said. “The girl would have been fine.”
He noted that the Mets have extended netting. Last week, the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers both announced they will extend nets further down the foul lines, and the Cubs will do likewise next season.
Gorman said the “at-your-own-risk” rule is “antiquated,” a remnant of the dead-ball era when batted balls did not travel as far or as fast as they do in today’s game.
Zlotnick says the Yankees failed to heed his advice, and the casualties are mounting.
“I don’t know how the Yankee owners sleep at night knowing that because of their foot-dragging, this poor girl has been so seriously injured,” he said. “Her injuries were completely preventable.”
The Yankees had no comment.