Rare is the day that the active professional sportsman sues another team. Very rare, in fact. Yet reports today state that Athletics utility man Zack Gelof has sued the Detroit Tigers over a knee injury suffered at their home field, Comerica Park, alleging that exposed metal fencing caused an avoidable injury while he was making a sliding catch.
The lawsuit, filed September 28 in Wayne County Circuit Court, also names Ilitch Holdings (parent company of both the Tigers and the stadium), as well as the Detroit-Wayne County Stadium Authority. In it, Gelof alleges premises liability, negligence and negligent design, arguing that the defendants failed to maintain reasonably safe conditions for players.
Gelof was injured during the third inning of the Athletics ' July 9 loss to Detroit. Playing left field, he caught a foul ball while sliding toward the boundary fence, whereupon his right knee struck metal. The collision tore his uniform and left a deep cut beneath his kneecap, narrowly missing the patellar tendon. He did not return to the line-up for a month.
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Gelof's complaint alleges that the fence protruded into or alongside the playing area and lacked adequate protection. It also points to padding installed after the incident. Gelof is seeking unspecified damages covering medical expenses, economic losses, pain and suffering, emotional distress and other costs.
The lawsuit cites remarks attributed to Tigers outfielder Riley Greene , in which Greene acknowledged that the metal section could be unforgiving during a hard slide. Gelof's argument is that the location exposed players to a foreseeable hazard while they were attempting routine defensive plays.
"We are aware of the lawsuit and do not comment on pending litigation," the Tigers said Tuesday, via ESPN .
An active player suing an opposing franchise over stadium conditions is unusual, but Gelof's case has a close baseball precedent – coincidentally, one involving another Athletics player.
Outfielder Dustin Fowler sued the Chicago White Sox in December 2017 over an injury suffered earlier that year. Fowler was playing for the New York Yankees when he collided with an unpadded electrical box at Guaranteed Rate Field on June 29, which coincidentally occurred during the first inning of his major-league debut . The injury ruptured his right patellar tendon and required season-ending surgery. By the time Fowler filed suit, the Yankees had traded him to Oakland in the Sonny Gray deal , subsequently returning to the majors with the Athletics in 2018.
Fowler's claim alleged that the electrical box was positioned where players could not readily detect it and presented an unreasonable injury risk . The White Sox argued that the dispute belonged under baseball's Collective Bargaining Agreement rather than state negligence law. A federal judge rejected that argument in 2018 and returned the case to state court. The parties reached a settlement in 2022, according to subsequent reporting citing court records.
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Former Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Darin Ruf once sued the Cincinnati Reds on a similar basis – unlike Fowler, whose injury was merely season-ending, Ruf's was career-ending . Elsewhere, a prominent example from elsewhere in American sports involved Reggie Bush, who sued the Rams while still an active NFL player. Bush was returning a punt for the San Francisco 49ers at the Edward Jones Dome on November 1, 2015, when he ran out of bounds and slipped on concrete surrounding the playing field. He suffered a season-ending knee injury and filed his lawsuit in January 2016, before playing another season with Buffalo.
It paid off in a big way. In June 2018, a St. Louis jury awarded Bush $12.45 million : $4.95 million in compensatory damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages. Unlike Fowler's settlement, that case produced a verdict against the opposing franchise over the conditions surrounding its field. (Ruf's case is still pending .)
Although in no way definitive, all three cases provide relevant comparisons to Gelof's Michigan lawsuit. Each concerned an injury allegedly caused by a stadium feature encountered during play, with the player seeking compensation from the host organization. Gelof's claim now raises a similar question about the protection provided along Comerica Park's fence.
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This article was originally published on HEAVY
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