Patent ID: 8573565

Claim:
A fence that confines a softball or baseball outfield, said fence comprising: a continuous plurality of flexible, resilient mesh panels joined together in an arc, said plurality of mesh panels being bounded by a pair of foul poles marking the horizontal playing portion of said softball or baseball outfield; a plurality of fixed support posts supported from beneath a ground surface in an arc that is offset from the arc defined by the mesh panels and is outside the confines of said outfield, said outfield being defined by the mesh panels, and each fixed support post being angled inwards toward the confines of the outfield; said mesh panels having reinforced tensioned upper and lower edges, the reinforced tensioned upper edge being suspended and maintained in position from above by tensioned cables extending diagonally upward and outward from the mesh panels at the confines of the outfield toward respective support posts outside the confines of the outfield, forming an elastically supported arced mesh and cable system, and said mesh panels being attached at the reinforced tensioned lower edge to the plurality of support posts sufficiently close to the ground surface to prevent a baseball or softball from rolling between the lower edge and the ground surface, each mesh panel defining a respective plane which is angularly displaced from a respective defined plane of an adjacent mesh panel by an outward component of the tension supplied by the tensioned cables from the plurality of fixed support posts, and said mesh panels being effective for confining within said outfield a player of said game who runs into said fence, causing a nondestructive deflection of the mesh and cable system, substantially without movement of the fixed support posts, thereby minimizing any injury to said player from impacting said fence.