Fan nearly falls from stands during homer derby

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PHOENIX (AP) — The ball arching against Chase Field’s bright

lights, Keith Carmickle climbed up on a narrow table, leaned

forward and lost his balance, momentum carrying him toward a

20-foot fall to a pool deck below.

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Had it not been for the quick reactions of his brother, a friend

and a handful of fans Monday night at Major League Baseball’s

All-Star Home Run Derby, Carmickle might have suffered the same

fate as Shannon Stone, the Texas Rangers’ fan who died Thursday

night trying to catch a ball thrown into the stands.

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“I thought: I’ve lived a good life,” Carmickle said.

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Seated in a small section of seats above the right-field fence,

Carmickle, from Kingman, and his group had already grabbed home run

balls by Robinson Cano and Adrian Gonzalez, and were looking to add

another to their collection when Milwaukee’s Prince Fielder came up

in the second round of the derby.

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Trying to snare a towering shot by Fielder, Carmickle stepped up

onto a metal table about 18 inches wide and reached down for the

catch. He missed the ball, which hit the wall several feet below

him, and the momentum carried him forward, headfirst over a short

railing.

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Carmickle was headed for a hard landing when his friend, Aaron

Nelson, grabbed his legs and his brother, Kraig, grabbed him around

the arms. The crowd above and below gasping, Carmickle dangled

briefly over a deck where a couple of cameras were positioned

behind Chase Field’s pool before his brother, Nelson and a few fans

pulled him back to his seat.

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The near miss was eerily similar to what happened to Stone, the

39-year-old memorialized in Texas earlier Monday after falling 20

feet to his death while trying to catch a ball thrown into the

stands by Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton.

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“He tried to catch it, I grabbed his legs and his brother grabbed

his arms,” said Nelson, who, along with Kraig Carmickle, is from

Chandler. “So when he went over the ledge, we pulled him back. He

wasn’t going down, I was holding on.”

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The Carmickles and Nelson gathered themselves after the close call

and let out a few shouts before breaking into high-fives. They

relived the moment with a few of the fans around them, then again

as they looked at photos taken by an Arizona Republic photographer,

who had shots from behind of Carmickle standing on the table, then

falling.

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They spoke with security personnel a few minutes later and were

allowed to remain in the game, with Carmickle putting his arm

around a security guard who told him to be careful before he walked

back to his seat.

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“I stepped up on the table, I missed the ball by 2 or 3 feet and

went over,” he said. “We caught three balls and I told the guys I

was going to go for the cycle. Dude, they were really holding onto

me.”

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Fielder didn’t notice the close call and continued his turn in the

derby.

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“I didn’t see it,” he said. “We don’t need any of that.”

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