Liz McGuire was at a Blue Jays game in Toronto on Friday night, sitting on the third base line and talking with a friend, when a foul ball suddenly hurtled toward her at 110 miles per hour, striking her in the head and leaving a large lump above her right eye.
McGuire, 40, didn’t get to keep the ball that hit her, but now, 110 personalized Topps baseball cards bearing a picture of her swollen forehead have been mailed to her.
Bo Bichette, the Blue Jays shortstop, was up to bat during the late innings of Toronto’s game on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays when he fouled off a pitch. The ball was fired over the protective netting in the lower bowl of Rogers Centre and behind the third base line, where McGuire was sitting her friend.
McGuire said she briefly turned her head away from the field to talk to her friend and didn’t see the ball barreling toward her.
“I heard someone scream, and then it just hit me,” she said.
The Blue Jays said in an email on Tuesday that McGuire was immediately attended to by medical workers at the ballpark, and that she decided to return to her seat to watch the rest of the game.
“I know you have to be careful with foul lines, and I know better,” she said, adding that she attends games regularly. “But it was 110 miles per hour off the bat, and it came at me.”
After McGuire posted pictures of her swollen face and the ensuing black eye on social media, she said Topps, the trading card company, contacted her and asked her permission to use one of the images on a custom card.
Topps produced exactly 110 copies, a nod to the speed of the ball that hit McGuire. The cards have a picture of McGuire in Blue Jays gear with the large lump on her forehead.
“Fan wears 110MPH foul ball like a champ,” the cards say.
A spokeswoman for the Blue Jays said that the team had reached out to McGuire and invited her to an upcoming game. The team also offered her a ball signed by Bichette.
“Fan safety is a priority and the Blue Jays have numerous precautions in place to ensure a safe environment for all fans at the ballpark,” the team said.
McGuire said medical workers iced her head, but she wanted to watch the end of the game. (The Rays beat the Blue Jays 4-3.)
“I was pretty breezy about the whole thing,” she said. But as her face started to swell, McGuire said she went to the emergency room after the game, and she was scanned for facial fractures.
“It was so big,” she said of the swelling.
Since Friday, McGuire said she has suffered headaches and nausea. She went back to the emergency room on Monday, but her CT scans were clear.
“I probably just have a concussion, and a good story,” she said, adding that she bought two lottery tickets over the weekend.
The odds of being struck by a ball or bat at a baseball game are low. By 2018, all Major League Baseball teams had extended the netting behind home plate and down the foul lines to keep fans safe. Baseball fans are warned about the dangers of flying objects at M.L.B. games.
“Be alert!” the Blue Jays fan code of conduct says. “Prior to, during, and following the event, baseballs, bats, bat fragments and other objects may be thrown or hit into fan areas.”
The code of conduct says that “by entering the stadium,” a fan attending a game “voluntarily assumes all risks and danger of any injury.”
Despite the injury, McGuire is undeterred, she said, and has plans to return to Rogers Centre on Wednesday to see the Blue Jays play the Chicago White Sox.
“It was such a freak accident,” she said. “I’m not going to let it shape my outlook of fandom.”
