A coach for the Colorado Rockies, in a game against the Dodgers, was struck very close to his eye by a fragment of an exploded maple bat just last week. The barrel of these broken bats routinely end up sticking in the turf, javelin style.
I have heard of a couple of instances of these things happening. A few rows up behind the catcher AND the net is the only way I like to go to games these days. Had seats a few rows up on the first base line Thurs. Not only had to duck from foul balls but now worried about the bats.