MARK HOFFMAN/MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL / USA TODAY NETWORK
Former Major League Baseball player Darin Ruf has filed a lawsuit against the Cincinnati Reds over a career-ending injury he says should have been “avoidable.” Ruf played nine seasons in the big leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies, San Francisco Giants, New York Mets, and Milwaukee Brewers. He also played three seasons with the Samsung Lions in the KBO League in South Korea.
In his lawsuit, Darin Ruf cites a knee injury he suffered when he ran into a tarp at the Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati in 2023. The lawsuit, filed in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, accuses the Reds of negligence in failing to maintain safe field conditions, specifically an unpadded metal tarp roller. However, the Cincinnati Reds don’t actually own the ballpark. Hamilton County in Ohio owns the stadium.
Ruf was playing first base for the Milwaukee Brewers on June 2, 2023 when in the third inning he went after a pop fly in foul territory. While doing so, he ran into the end of the tarp roller, cutting his knee and forcing him to exit the game. During the broadcast of the game after Ruf’s injury, one of the announcers referred to a “significant hunk of metal … that doesn’t give very much.”
Darin Ruf ended up with a deep laceration and a non-displaced fracture of his patella and was placed on the 60-day injured list. He never played professional baseball again.
Former Milwaukee Brewers player Darin Ruf is suing the Cincinnati Reds, claiming "unsafe field conditions" at Great American Ball Park caused a career-ending leg injury on this play in 2023. Lawsuit seeks damages for negligence.
— Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) May 22, 2025
Ruf claims in his lawsuit against the Reds that he suffered “permanent and substantial deformities to his knee” as a result of the collision with the Reds’ tarp roller.
“This didn’t need to happen,” Ruf said in a statement. “I wish it didn’t happen. Players shouldn’t have to worry about hidden hazards like that on a major league field.”
Tad Thomas, Ruf’s attorney, said in a press release announcing the lawsuit, “This was an obvious and avoidable risk. There are basic safety protocols every MLB team should follow. Leaving an unpadded metal roller on the edge of the field is inexcusable.”
Ruf is seeking punitive and compensatory damages. He was 36-years-old at the time of his injury and finished his MLB career with a .239 batting average over 581 games.