The 3 rules of buying real estate that anyone with an ounce of common sense will tell you are: location, location, and location.

So, if you move into a home next to the Turnpike, expect fumes.

If you moved into one of those lovely homes in Manalapan adjacent to Raceway Park, expect the sound of jet fueled funny cars to permeate the walls.

And if you moved into a home that adjoins a ball field, expect the occasional stray baseball to come careening into your yard.

All reasonable assumptions, no?

Yes…although not according to a report from mycentraljersey.com and this report:
A Scotch Plains man is facing a charge of simple assault after allegedly attacking a Union Catholic High School senior who ventured onto his property to retrieve a foul ball.

Scotch Plains Police Capt. Brian Donnelly said officers were called to the varsity baseball field at the high school Saturday afternoon to find that the incident was sparked when a batter smacked a foul ball onto a nearby property.

The victim retrieved the baseball, but moments later 44-year-old Michael Bennett allegedly burst out of his home, ran over to the player, “grabbed him by the neck and wrist,” then “grabbed the ball and told him to get off his property."

The player had a visible scratch resulting from the alleged assault. Bennett subsequently was arrested, charged and later released on his own recognizance, police said.

The baseball field is just beyond trees in the backyards of some frustrated residents.

Newark Archdiocese spokesperson Jim Goodness admits neighbors have complained about balls landing on their properties….saying…."The ball field has been there for decades. It was there before any of the houses were built therefore any neighbors moved into the area they knew it was a ball field there," he adds.

The school suggested putting up netting but most homeowners said no because it would spoil the look of the area.

Kind of like the Kennedy family not wanting off shore windmills to mar the view from their Hyannisport compound.

So they put in a tree line to work as a buffer, hoping that will solve the problem when they grow in.

Guess what…balls do have a way of flying through trees.

Do you think the neighbors should have gone with proposition A and had the diocese put up the netting, or B…not chosen to live next to a ball field in the first place?

Comment as you see fit!

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