Coolbaugh is survived by his wife, Mandy, and two young sons, Joseph and Jacob. Mandy Coolbaugh is expecting another child in October.
Posted on 07/23/2007 11:46:02 AM PDT by kcvl
NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - 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 former major leaguer was hit by a foul ball off the bat of Tino Sanchez. Coolbaugh, 35, 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Again?
Saw this about 5 minutes ago on a FOX NEWS ALERT. Freak accident, I feel for the one who hit the foul ball. Prayers.
Coolbaugh is survived by his wife, Mandy, and two young sons, Joseph and Jacob. Mandy Coolbaugh is expecting another child in October.
I guess it’s time to build cages around the coaches’ boxes and/or require they wear helmets with face shields... there will be some sort of overreaction to this.
I am not minimizing the tragedy.
But also, I have to think at least partly, the coach was not paying attention to the action????
North Little Rock police Sgt. Terry Kuykendall said Coolbaugh was alive when he was put in an ambulance but stopped breathing as the ambulance arrived at Baptist Medical Center-North Little Rock. He was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:47 p.m. local time.
Travelers spokesman Phil Elson said Coolbaugh was hit on either the right side of his head or the forehead and immediately collapsed.
Playing baseball always freaked me out for this very reason.
What an awful tragedy. Prayers for his wife, children, loved ones and family.
Being smacked in the jaw by a line drive when I was about 10 ended any desire I had to be a pitcher. OTOH, I’ve seen a couple of catchers take a bat to the head, so I guess it’s not so safe behind the plate either. I’ll play left field.
How very, very, sad. Prayers for all.
That would potentially interfere will foul popups. One thing about the base coaches is that they focus on the base runners, and not necessarily where the ball is, as they are constantly flashing signals to the base runners.
Yup...
I remember playing baseball in high school and during practice one day I hit a zinger straight back at the pitcher, who was our coach, and it was going straight for his wedding tackle. I've never seen anyone move a glove so fast and he caught it and danced out of the way. I'm pretty sure I would've ended his chances at kids there, I really got a hold of that ball and aluminum bats are not used in the majors for a reason.
Sergio Garcia nailed a photographer in the head with an errant drive during the British Open. Apparently golf balls are a little more forgiving than baseballs...I’m almost surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
"It's a tragedy for all of baseball," Drillers president Chuck Lamson told
I think that's just a bit of hyperbole. I doubt most of baseball is all that concerned about this incident.
Myself and about 10 others ducked as a screaming foul ball slammed into a little girls face behind me at Fenway years ago. So much blood, I’ll never forget that.
Um, he hit the ball, it struck the coach, the coach died. He did kill the guy. However, I think this is what's normally called “death by misadventure”.
I remember in Little League I hit a line drive back at the coach pitching batting practice, he put his bare hand up to protect himself and it split the web of his index and middle finger.
scared me to death.
Whenever I hear a story like this, it reminds me of that movie, I think it was “Simon Birch”. At one point the little kid actually manages to make contact with a pitch in a baseball game. The ball is a foul pop-up, and I think it hits his mother in the head and kills her.
Maybe I’m confusing it with another movie.
Pretty sad stuff ...
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