(Image Source: The New York Daily News)

BY: TOM MARTIN

An unspeakable, unthinkable tragedy in Arlington, Texas. A man reaching to catch a baseball at a Texas Rangers game for his young son -- falls to his death.

Brownwood, Texas firefighter Shannon Stone lunged for a ball tossed by Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton before falling twenty feet. He initially survived the fall -- but went into cardiac arrest an hour later.  Doctors at a Fort Worth hospital pronounced him dead.  Oakland A’s relief pitcher Brad Ziegler recounted his view of the incident on ESPN Radio:

“You could hear him saying, ‘Please check on my son. He’s up there by himself.' A paramedic right there said: ‘Sir, we’ll get your son, your son’s going to be okay, don’t worry about your son.’ They kinda kept carrying him out. But he was conscious, he was talking."

The incident stung the Rangers’ Hamilton -- whom owner Nolan Ryan describes as “very distraught.” Hamilton’s return to baseball after overcoming drug addiction is well-documented. As an International Business Times writer notes, this only adds to his turmoil.

“How does a man with past demons as strong as Hamilton’s, react to such a traumatic event? ... Hamilton has claimed to have avoided alcohol and drugs since 2005, though he did have a very public relapse in 2009 ... Can he resist those major temptations when times get toughest? One would certainly hope so, as Hamilton seems to be a good guy, but traumatic events like these can have long lasting impacts on people." 

Rangers’ fans are also taking the news hard. One Rangers blogger writes -- the tragedy’s shock and surprise hurts the most:

“We don’t expect to have to deal with the terrible finality of death during a baseball game, nor should we expect to. We’re not supposed to have to think about our own mortality during a baseball game, and yet here we are." 

This makes two falls in two years for Rangers Ballpark in Arlington after a man survived a 30-foot fall in 2010. One year ago, a writer for Athletic Business says a woman who fell at the same stadium in 1994 told him the Rangers’ home needed to be changed. The statement now proves eerily prophetic:

“Maybe ...the Rangers will now really open their eyes and raise the rails everywhere else, because next time — and I hate to say this — somebody is going to die." 

The Rangers say it is too early to discuss what changes could be made to the stadium to prevent accidents like these from happening again.

Transcript by Newsy.