Fan falls into Brewers bullpen, taken to hospital

MILWAUKEE -- An unidentified male fan who fell into the Brewers bullpen during Tuesday's game at Miller Park was conscious and alert when he was transported to a hospital, according to a club spokesperson.

Stadium security and emergency medical officials went to the bullpen during the seventh inning to tend to the fan. The game against the Twins was delayed before the start of the eighth while the fan was removed from the bullpen on a stretcher.

He was transported to Froedtert Hospital. The Brewers said privacy laws would preclude them from providing further information about the man's condition.

"We were sitting there," said Brewers reliever Brandon Kintzler, "and Marcus [Hanel, bullpen catcher] yelled, 'Oh, my gosh!' and you heard the net come flying down. I think the net caught him, and then he just face-planted. He didn't move for a few minutes."

Kintzler said the man appeared to be in his 20s. Security was on the scene immediately and called for medical help. While EMTs tended to the man, Kintzler and other Brewers pitchers saw the man's fingers move for the first time.

Soon thereafter, Kintzler was told to begin warming up to pitch.

"I'm sure it was tough for Kintzler to get ready to come into the game, obviously, when something happens like that," fellow Brewers reliever Rob Wooten said. "You just hope the guy's OK. It's hard to get back to focusing on the game when a guy could be or is seriously injured. It's hard to keep your mind focused on the game."

Twins reliever Casey Fien, who eventually pitched the eighth inning for the Twins, was completing a stretch when he spied the fan reaching as far as he could over the railing, then lose his balance.

"He just flipped right over," Fien said. "It looked like he was just reaching down, almost stretching. ... At first I thought it was someone just trying to jump in, but he wasn't going to brace himself at all and just flipped right over. He grabbed the net with his hand and that gave, obviously, because it can't take that weight. It looked like a pretty big guy.

"It looked bad, how he was falling. It looked like he was going to land on his head. I can't even imagine the guy [Kintzler] having to warm up. I think he was still lying there while he was warming up. You don't expect to see something like that."

Said Twins manager Ron Gardenhire: "We saw them taking him off the field, which wasn't the prettiest thing I've ever seen in my life, but I heard the guy's OK and probably a little beat up. That's a scary moment."