Steinbrenner Apologizes to Shooting Victim

New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner apologized by phone Tuesday to a woman struck in the hand by a sniper’s bullet during a Fourth of July baseball game at Yankee Stadium.

Nevertheless, Joann Barrett said she would be too nervous to attend another baseball game.

“He really sounded concerned,” Barrett said from her suburban home in Bronxville. “He was really sorry it happened. He said he was a family man and can feel for people in this situation.”

Barrett, who is five months pregnant, had been critical of Steinbrenner and the Yankee management, calling them “callous and so ignorant” because no one had contacted her after the sniper shooting at the stadium in the Bronx borough of New York.

Barrett’s husband, Kevin, also said Steinbrenner promised to look into the couple’s claim that security was slow in responding; why no one accompanied the Barretts to the hospital, and why no one made a phone call to check on her condition.

Barrett said she feels Steinbrenner is “a nice man,” but said his apology was not enough to persuade her to see another game at the stadium. “I would be too nervous,” she said.

Barrett suffered a wound to her right hand when she was shot during a Yankee game against Minnesota. While checking out of the hospital Sunday, she found the bullet in her purse.