A Mets fan who was hit in the face by an exploding Luis Castillo bat at a Mets game three years ago is suing the light-hitting second baseman — and the player who lent him the bat.
In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, James Falzon points the finger at Castillo, bat owner and then-teammate Ramon Castro, the Mets, Major League Baseball and the shattered bat’s maker, Rawlings.
Falzon, 50, was in the second row — along the third-base line with his dad, 11-year-old son and 9-year-old nephew — watching the Mets play the Atlanta Braves on an annual family outing to Shea Stadium on Aug. 8, 2007.
When Castillo came to bat in the seventh, he smacked a fly ball, his bat shattered and shards flew into the seats.
“I was watching the ball,” Falzon told The Post in 2008, “and [the shards] hit me in the face. It knocked me off my chair.”
The disfiguring injuries left him with massive bleeding, a broken nose and eye socket, and permanent metal plates and pins. “It broke my whole face,” he said.
His lawsuit, filed on Friday, says his injuries could have been prevented if Castillo hadn’t been using a maple bat.
Maple bats became popular after Barry Bonds used them on his way to hitting 73 home runs in 2001, the suit says, but they’re more dangerous than traditional ash bats – something both Rawlings and MLB were well aware of.
A 2005 study showed that while there was “no advantage in hit distance” using the maple bat, “the study revealed that ash bats typically crack while maple bats have a tendency to break apart or explode.”
The suit seeks unspecified money damages for Falzon’s physical injuries, as well as cash for the trauma endured by his son when he watched his dad get hurt.
In 2008, Major League Baseball found that maple bats were three times as likely to break in multiple places as traditional ash bats. The league has since set new production standards for bats.