Minor league coach dies after being struck by line drive during game July 23, 2007 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 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. ADVERTISEMENT "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.
My goodness. That's just horrible. I'm surprised incidents like this don't happen more often, but so little can be done about it. Just horrible news. RIP.
That sucks. Every time I hear about something like this I don't want to pitch for a while. It really is very dangerous when you stop and think about it. I can't imagine how hard it must have been hit for the base coach not to have been able to get out of the way.
Yeah, baseball can be extremely dangerous. My son's little league doesn't allow metal bats at all anymore for reasons like this. Something is strange here though. It says he was either hit in the forehead, or on the right side of his head. However, he was in the first base coaching box. Naturally, if you are facing the game, your left side would be exposed to the ball. The forehead I can understand, but how could he be hit on the right?
That's actually a pretty good idea. Hell, I thought Olerud's idea would catch on more around the league, and probably should. It might have saved Mientkiewich's season. Maybe not, but it couldn't hurt. I see no reason modern "technology" shouldn't be used to preserve an athlete's or even coach's health.
Maybe he was trying to get away, turned around toward the dugout, and then had his right side facing home plate.
I was thinking about that, but that made me wonder what I would do. If he had the time to turn his body toward the dugout, then he had time to 1) put his hands up over his face, or 2) duck. Those are the reactions I would have. I'm not trying to say he's an idiot or anything. I hope this doesn't sound like I'm blaming him for what happened. I'm just trying to figure out why he didn't react like you would assume someone would in that situation. Freak accidents are the worst.
The problem with that is he's a former Major League player, and they drill it into your head even at the high school level that when you are going to get hit, you turn you back to the ball. In high school we would have practices where the coach would throw tennis balls at us and we would turn our backs to it. The only thing I can think of is if someone was talking to him from the dugout and he was facing that way as the pitch was thrown.
There's an idea I hadn't considered. He may have been distracted for some reason. That really sucks. Forget the guy hitting, imagine how the guy who was talking to him is going to sleep the rest of his life. As for the drilling it into your head about turning your back to the ball, I learned that and taught that at the Little League level. I mean, this is critical knowledge. Just doesn't make sense, unless like you said, he was distracted.
Probably the most dangerous guy in mlb for that happening is Sheffield and why third base coaches basically try to get in the dugout when he is at bat. There is just no way to get out of the way of one of his line drives if it's coming at you.
