YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) A 36-year-old man died Saturday after falling from the bleachers at Yokohama Stadium on Thursday evening during a baseball game between the Yokohama BayStars and Hanshin Tigers.
Yasuhiko Goto of Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, was rushed to a hospital after taking a 5-meter fall from the outfield fence, but died after spending two days in a coma, police said.
Goto was sitting in the front row of the right-field bleachers with his family and friends when he apparently climbed onto the one-meter fence and fell.
According to baseball sources, Goto, who was apparently very drunk, fell after watching pinch hitter Shinjiro Hiyama hit a double to the fence in the eighth inning.
"A man who was climbing the fence to watch the game lost his balance when he looked down to see the batted ball," a 40-year-old man who witnessed the accident said.
A Yokohama BayStars trainer who treated Goto until paramedics arrived said his heart and lungs had already stopped but that he managed to get them going again through CPR.
"It is the first time (such an accident occurred) in more than 30 years since the stadium was built," said Hiroshi Tsuruoka, the stadium's president. "The fence is not so low that a person can accidently fall off."