Photo/Lesson/Idiot of the Day

As you can see in the picture at the left, baseball fan Keith Carmickle came periously close to falling 20 feet headfirst at Monday night’s Home Run Derby before being miraculously caught by his friend and his brother.  Now, just about everyone knows about the tragedy that occurred in Texas last Thursday night. 39 year-old Rangers fan Shannon Stone fell a similar distance headfirst after reaching over a railing to catch a foul ball thrown to him by Josh Hamilton. Stone, who was attending the game with his 6-year old son, died en route to the hospital, in what has to be one of the saddest incidents to take place at a baseball game in a long, long time. Now, not to make light of that tragedy, but after last night’s near incident, it’s clear that baseball fans need to be a little more careful when it comes to catching balls. Especially this guy Carmickle, who I have no problem calling an absolute idiot. The guy stepped up onto a metal table about 18 inches wide and reached down to catch a home-run ball hit by Prince Fielder. When it fell short of his glove, his momentum carried him forward and he almost tumbled to his death. And, to top it off, he already had caught 3 home run balls as it was. What a stupid move! Was that ball really worth more than your life? Especially after what happened in Texas not one week ago, did ya think it was a smart idea to stand up on a small table and reach over a 20 foot drop to catch a useless baseball? Everyone is saying how Major League Baseball needs to make ballparks safer for fans in light of the Texas tragedy. But maybe the real issue is not the safety of the ballparks but some people’s lack of safety for their own well being. It’s just a round, leather ball. I’d hope everyone reading this would agree their life is worth more. (AP Photo/Arizona Republic, David Kadlubowski)