Minor league coach dies after being struck by line drive during game

[moshquerade]

Awful.

By Associated Press
Monday, July 23, 2007 - Updated: 07:54 AM EST

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Tulsa Drillers coach Mike Coolbaugh died after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach?s box during a game.

The Texas League game was suspended in the ninth inning Sunday after the 35-year-old former major leaguer was hit by a foul ball off the bat of Tino Sanchez of the Arkansas Travelers. Coolbaugh was taken to Baptist Medical Center-North Little Rock, where he was pronounced dead.

"It?s a tragedy for all of baseball," Drillers president Chuck Lamson told the Tulsa World in a story posted on the newspaper?s Web site early Monday. "He just joined the staff and was a former Driller player. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family."

Travelers spokesman Phil Elson said Coolbaugh was either hit on the right side of his head or on the forehead and fell to the ground immediately. According to a report on the Drillers? Web site late Sunday, Coolbaugh was knocked unconscious and CPR was administered to him on the field.

Sgt. Terry Kuykendall, spokesman for North Little Rock police, said Coolbaugh was still alive when he was put in an ambulance, but stopped breathing as the ambulance arrived at the hospital.

"They tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at 9:47 p.m.," Kuykendall said.

Coolbaugh played 44 games in the major leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers over two seasons. Coolbaugh joined the Tulsa staff on July 3 as a batting coach. He played for the team briefly in 1996.

Tulsa is the Colorado Rockies? Double-A affiliate.

Drillers first basemen Aaron Rifkin said recently that Coolbaugh?s coaching style had already helped the team.

"He came in and didn?t try to change guys, just fine-tune what they were doing. He?s been great for me," Rifkin told the Tulsa World.

A native of Binghamton, N.Y., Coolbaugh went to high school in San Antonio and was drafted in 1990 by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 16th round.

He played third base and bounced around the minors for a decade, before reaching the major leagues for the first time with in 2001 with the Brewers. He played 39 big league games that season and five for the Cardinals in 2002. He hit two home runs in 70 major league at-bats.

Coolbaugh?s older brother, Scott, also played 167 major league games over parts of four seasons with Texas, San Diego and St. Louis in the early 1990s.

The Travelers, an Angels affiliate, led 7-3 at the time the game was suspended with no outs and a runner on first in the top of the ninth inning. Officials said a date and time for finishing the game had not yet been chosen.

Coolbaugh is survived by his wife, Mandy, and two young sons, Joseph and Jacob, all of San Antonio. Mandy Coolbaugh is expecting another child in October.

http://redsox.bostonherald.com...leid=1012916&srvc=home

 

[LS20]

his name is cool baugh

 

[NikolaeVarius]

That really sucks. Especially for the kids who had to go through that.

 

[lozina]

Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

 

[ThePresence]

That is terrible.
Poor guy who hit that ball won't be able to live with himself.

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: lozina
Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

i never thought 1st/3rd base coaches wearing batting-type helmets was a bad idea.

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: tenshodo13
That really sucks. Especially for the kids who had to go through that.

Kids? No. Minor League is a feeder for professional. These guys are in their 20s or 30s.

 

[hypn0tik]

That's an extremely unfortunate accident.

Hopefully this will be an eye-opener and people will be more alert.

 

[CatKillaZ]

I think baseball should be banned in general.. It sucks anyhow.

 

[KK]

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: lozina
Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

i never thought 1st/3rd base coaches wearing batting-type helmets was a bad idea.

you actually pondered that before? What the heck don't you think of.

anyways, what about the pitcher wearing a helmet? He's closer.

 

[mh47g]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: lozina
Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

i never thought 1st/3rd base coaches wearing batting-type helmets was a bad idea.

you actually pondered that before? What the heck don't you think of.

anyways, what about the pitcher wearing a helmet? He's closer.

While we're at it lets give everyone umpire gear!!

 

[alien42]

Originally posted by: CatKillaZ
I think i should be banned in general.. I suck anyhow.

fixed

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: KK

Originally posted by: moshquerade

Originally posted by: lozina
Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

i never thought 1st/3rd base coaches wearing batting-type helmets was a bad idea.

you actually pondered that before? What the heck don't you think of.

anyways, what about the pitcher wearing a helmet? He's closer.

i play ball and i watch it frequently, so yeh, i've pondered the safety of base coaches.

the pitcher is more "on the ball" so to speak than the base coaches, and the batter in the warm up circle is wearing a helmet already.

honestly, i don't think this incident is going to lead to helmets for base coaches so smug remarks like "While we're at it lets give everyone umpire gear!!" aren't really worth the space used to post them in.

 

[StartingLine]

I have seen a pitcher get hit in the adams apple with a line drive, thank god we were just goofing around playing with a tennis ball in the backyard. He still went down like a sack o bricks though.

 

[CKent]

Originally posted by: lozina
Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

I think everyone should wear darth vader helmets. On the field and off... how cool would that be? We could breathe loud and threaten each other with the Force too.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: alien42

Originally posted by: CatKillaZ
I think i should be banned in general.. I suck anyhow.

fixed

:thumbsup:

 

[bigrash]

Originally posted by: CKent

Originally posted by: lozina
Man what a way to go...

Are they going to now force everyone on the field to wear darth vader helmets and elbow pads?

we're just the panzy nanny nation to do that

I think everyone should wear darth vader helmets. On the field and off... how cool would that be? We could breathe loud and threaten each other with the Force too.

That's an awesome idea. I'd love to come in to work like that. Altough, office sex wouldn't be as much fun though!

 

[JDMnAR1]

Slight error in the article, in that it has a home team batter at the plate while the visiting team coach is the one hit in the coaching box. Our local people suck like that - print and broadcast both.

I imagine that there are going to be some little leaguers who were in the stands rethinking baseball after seeing that, not to mention parents.