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Minor League Baseball Coach Killed by Line Drive

foxnews.com — The batting coach for the Tulsa Drillers was pronounced dead at a hospital Sunday evening after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach's box during a Texas League game with the Arkansas Travelers

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  • webcure, on 10/10/2007, -4/+44Now I know why I was so afraid of the baseball in Little League. He at least went out doing something he loved. Poor guy. RIP
    • EBFoxbat, on 10/10/2007, -21/+6Pretty sure he didn't love getting his skull crushed.

      ...oh man i'm going down.
    • texpundit, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I got my face broke by a line drive when I was *trying out* for pitcher in little league. I just didn't duck quick enough. Broke my jaw in two places and busted my orbital. They had to do the suction cup thing to put my eye back into place while they repaired the orbital. Had my mouth wired shut for 6 weeks.

      Needless to say, I never played baseball again after that.
  • pigsbladder, on 10/10/2007, -29/+7Will the guy who foul balled get in trouble?
  • trancemotions, on 10/10/2007, -19/+3That is what always kept me from playing baseball/softball during highschool... very sad.
    • therightside, on 10/10/2007, -1/+22Yeah, we should avoid any situation that contains any element of risk. I mean the chances of this happening are probably 1 in 1 trillion. Too close for comfort.
    • heythisismyname, on 10/10/2007, -7/+7how could you play both baseball / softball in high school? are you a man/woman?
      • smedrick, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Men and women play both sports, Costas.
        • heythisismyname, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3i don't know any high school near me that had men's softball or women's baseball? did you?
      • qishi, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Maybe he's talking about playing baseball for the high school, and softball in the summer.Or maybe he is a she, and means softball for school, baseball in summer. trancemotions also says "during high school" which doesn't necessarily mean on a school team at all.
    • retsig, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Shouldn't be avoiding it, it's a great sport and stuff like this can happen anywhere. I played baseball for around 10-13 years of my life and saw something similar happen to another kid. One of my teammates hit the ball and it went straight to the poor kid face, there was quite a lot of blood but he made it OK.
    • arcele, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4are you sure it wasn't your complete and total lack of hand eye coordination mixed with morbid obesity?
  • Blakechi, on 10/10/2007, -9/+2Ouch.
  • thakidd, on 10/10/2007, -24/+11ANyone find it ironic the team was the Tulsa Drillers?!? (insert bad pun here please)
  • throwingks, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9This is horrible news. He must have been preoccupied with something else.

    I have seen more than 1 coach/fan get hit in the head. It happens too often.
    • Atom, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I dont know, when a pitch is traveling 90+mph that is countered by a large piece of wood swung by a man in incredible shape, you tend to lose sight of the ball for a split second. Doesnt take much to get blindsided by something traveling that fast.
      • throwingks, on 10/10/2007, -0/+11st base is 90 feet away. He played in the big leagues.
        http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/C/Mike-Coolbaugh.shtml
        His reflexes are fast enough to track a ball and get out of the way. The fastest a ball would travel off a bat is around 100mph. He was either talking to another player or looking for signs or something else.

        As a coach your eyes have to be all over the field, unfortunately tracking baseballs is low on the priority list.
      • kh99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Pitches regularly get hit back to the pitcher who is closer, and not only do they get out of the way, they often are able to catch it.
  • SaltedCashews, on 10/10/2007, -10/+9damn, that sounds like one painful impact. i wonder if the team or the stadium has insurance coverage for when things like this happen? it's very tragic, but hopefully his family will be taken care of
    • ahhell, on 10/10/2007, -5/+15Spoken like a true American. Someone gets accidently killed and the first thing anyone mentions is "do you have insurance"?
      • hmmmok, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7You forgot to knock FoxNews. Pls review your talking points.
      • misterjangles, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Yea ahhell, mr genius, why do you think that is..? Maybe because if you're an American housewife and your husband dies suddenly - you're probably going to be facing some serious financial trouble, risk of homelessness, etc. What I believe SaltedCashews said is "I hope their family will be taken care of" which sounds like a bit of compassion to me.

        What do they say in your country when a husband dies...? "Let's go throw rocks at his wife?"
        • therightside, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Its called life insurance, you can go and buy some. You dont have to wait for some frivolous lawsuit for your big payday. Please stop looking for other people/govt/lawsuits for your well being.
        • crweaks23, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2who said anything about a lawsuit??
    • pt4117, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Most ticket stubs warn about this, and state that it isn't their fault if something like this happens. Whether or not that really covers them remains to be seen. Also I would assume that baseball contracts have a similar warning.
    • misterjangles, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2If he has life insurance his family should be covered - sometimes accidental death even pays more.

      Of course, the insurance company is still gonna have their lawyers try to weasel out of paying anyway because that's they way they work. There's an old saying... You don't get rich by writing checks.
  • MikeCP, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12scary stuff. When i was pitching in little league I took a line drive back to my face and it hit me right between my temple and my eye. Knocked me out cold. I always think if the ball had been 1/4 of an inch one way or the other I might be blind in that eye or dead. Amazingly no one has ever died on the mound in the majors.

    RIP. Agreed with webcure, at least he was doing something he loved.
    • Seanmu13, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Same exact thing happened to me in Little League (same location too). I was fortunate to have the ball graze my glove, otherwise I could have been dead or blind. I pitched the next game though, because I thought, what the hell, what's the chances of that happening again.
    • kosmoX, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7This is the reason that aluminum bats aren't allowed in the majors. It is almost physically impossible for a pitcher to react to a line drive hit straight back at him off of an aluminum bat in the majors.
    • Rethcir, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Well, someone died with a hit by pitch ball to the face. That's why they stopped wearing caps and started wearing batting helmets at the plate.
      • CedEx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Why don't they add some sort of cage to the helmet as well? They seem to work just fine in cricket matches.
  • Kikkoman, on 10/10/2007, -23/+11He's out!
  • ChaserHimself, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12My best friend plays for the Drillers. Coolbaugh had just come in, and everyone really liked him. This is tragic. RIP.
  • Salanmon, on 10/10/2007, -11/+17My lack of baseball knowledge forced me to google "Line Drive" :(
  • sdpdt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4This is the only real thing dangerous about baseball. The ball must have been smoked to have killed him like that. Sad story.
    • EBFoxbat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Or hit him in the right spot.
    • UglieJosh, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It is NOT the only dangerous thing.

      People get hurt sliding, colliding, diving, running into walls, hyper-extending during swings, etc..

      I played for 10 years and saw people get hurt in all these ways and more.
      • CedEx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0People get hurt living life, that's why we have hospitals.
  • Jazzillion, on 10/10/2007, -15/+8Being a foxnews.com article I am surprised they didn't change they name to the Tulsa Killers or change the title to Steroids Responsible for Baseball Murderous Rampage.
    • EBFoxbat, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2No need.... "Drillers" was bad enough.
  • ericsr, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Just a horribly tragic story.
  • airquotes, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6At first I confused minor league with little league. The story has a much different feel to it when you are thinking he was coaching 8 year olds.
    • orlyfactor, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4if an 8 year-old could hit a ball that could kill a guy, I say sign him up for the majors!!
    • jjsaw5, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I don't really see how that changes anything...the guy is dead either way!
  • cfarmer8, on 10/10/2007, -12/+2Video?
  • memper, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Tthe guy who foul balled will only get in trouble if he's hiding in the woods 30 miles away in Missouri.
  • Shandooga, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2"Died doing something he loved" is a good thing? What warped morals we have become accustomed to.
    • TheTaoOfBill, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5What?! That saying has been around for awhile. The thought is that everyone has to die and it is best to go out doing something you enjoy doing. This is not a new thought nor is it any bad sign of the state of things. It's simply a lighter way to look at a tragic situation.
    • MikeCP, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Yeah, and how does saying that have anything to do with our morals...
    • LoudNoise, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Well, yeah...I'd much rather die doing something I love than taking a painful dump.
  • rooftopsuicide, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0i just flashed back to Maximum Overdrive, with the soda machine of death.
    anyone got a youtube clip?
  • davewashere, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Yeah, I think if I died doing something I loved it would really ruin that activity for me. I'd much rather die in a hospital bed, hacking up a lung, because I don't like doing that anyway.
    • Iamthechamp, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Well I hear heaven and hell have some decent sports teams....
    • redivider, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Either way you're dead. How would it be ruined for you? Pretty much everything is ruined for you if you're dead.
  • troprocker, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20I feel sorry for the dude who hit the line drive. He must feel terrible.
  • mc4_a, on 10/10/2007, -8/+1YOU'RE OUT!
  • MikeonTV, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1there has to be a video somewhere
  • TheTaoOfBill, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2Anyone else get a tingle feeling on their forehead reading this article?
    • iVision, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0No my spidey senses are currently unavailable
  • mikefitz2, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3as far as i know, minor league teams (at least the silverhawks) are allowed to use metal bats. sure, these guys aren't in the MLB, but maybe the minors should look into using wooden bats for all divisions?

    hell even my recreational softball league is considering wooden bats -- even with all the restrictions on aluminum alloy.
    • Hush, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2I don't get your point What does the bat have to do with it?
      You can hit a line drive with either.
      • Iamthechamp, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3The ball comes off an aluminum bat a lot faster, if MLB used aluminum bats then they would probably average about 3 dead pitchers a year. And Barry Bonds would be somewhere around 1500 homeruns right now.
      • mikefitz2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1wooden bats don't project the baseball nearly as fast as aluminum. if the ball doesn't impact the person as hard, the person has a better chance of surviving the impact.

        do you see my point now?
    • j0ew00ds, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8All minor leagues use wood bats.
    • helfon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7minor leagues are not allowed to use metal bats. At least not those aligned with major league baseball
    • davewashere, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I don't know of any professional baseball leagues that have ever allowed metal bats. Pro baseball would turn into a circus if it allowed metal or composite bats. College and high school baseball has addressed this issue by regulating metal bats. The metal bats that are "legal" in college and high school now perform about the same as wooden bats. The bats they used to allow were just too dangerous, and they turned 140 lb utility infielders into Mark McGwire.
  • acejones, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7The worst part about the whole deal is he left behind two young boys and his wife is expecting their third in October. That child will never personally know it's father.
  • bloominoctober, on 10/10/2007, -5/+3"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."

    [sarcasm] I'm glad they were able to look past this tragic death and report on what's really important ... the score of the game and when it will be finished. [/sarcasm] Damn Fox News.
    • Sandurz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1They're not going to entirely disregard the game. It could ***** up their schedule etc.

      And I would imagine some people were curious.
    • Zipko, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1And if a construction worker is killed on the job do you think it'd be wrong for investors to wonder if the accident will set back their project? These things happen, and while it's upsetting the world doesn't stop turning for every accident.
    • UglieJosh, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The show must go on.
  • Rabbittt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Absolutely HORRIBLE accident, but at least he died doing what he loved..
  • CheckPlease, on 10/10/2007, -6/+34The police said it was an accident, but I think foul play was involved.
    • AndySomnifac, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4As much as I'd like to digg this down for being insensitive, the cleverness of it won't let me.
    • Disjunto, on 10/10/2007, -4/+1don't think jokes are appropriate really
    • Dubbsacc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2I see what you did there...
    • orlyfactor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Bad, yet funny, joke of the day award goes to...

      CheckPlease!!
    • UglieJosh, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1As long as it's funny, it is in good taste...

      I still felt bad digging you up, though.
  • gl77, on 03/31/2008, -8/+1Video or it didn't happen.
    • MattAmos, on 10/10/2007, -6/+0Man i would have loved to see that video.
      America's Funniest home videos here I come!
  • boobies, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10contextual advertising at it's worst (from www.myfoxhouston.com):
    http://www.caseyshead.com/images/bad-ad.jpg
    • UglieJosh, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You need to do some comment abusing and get that where more people will see it.
  • achinda99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1RIP coach. But I also feel bad for the kid who has to live with the fact he killed his coach...
  • boobies, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13contextual advertising at its worst (from www.myfoxhouston.com):
    http://www.caseyshead.com/images/bad-ad.jpg
    • jsowder18, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1is it bad that i laughed a lil :-(
  • JMitch42, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1This is such a horrible tragedy. I feel bad for the coach's family, friends, and players...everyone. However, I can't begin to feel the pain that the guy who hit the ball is feeling now. Nothing like this should be put on a person. I will pray for everyone involved.
  • ronaldinho, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Makes me wonder what the functions of a first-base coach are, do they really need to be there?
    • foofightrs777, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Um...Yeah they do. I guess these are the type of comments you get to a sports story on digg.
    • kh99, on 10/10/2007, -2/+0LOL - I wasn't expecting that. I did expect to see at least one comment like "why don't they wear helmets".
    • UglieJosh, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1What is this "first base" thing you people speak of?
  • PDelahanty, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1Video or it didn't happen.

    I can't believe I typed that. Now I feel bad.
  • bkool, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1When I was 5, I was hit in the chest by a foul ball during an adult work league game. I wasn't breathing for over a minute. I wish I could thank again the Marine that gave me CPR. Thinking of that day still freaks me out.
  • bpeacock22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I live in Little Rock and was at the game. We had no idea it was that serious. Ever the optimists, we just figured he was knocked loopy. But seriously, there was no time for him to react. It wasn't like he was not paying attention. Didn't realize he died until this morning's paper. Wow, his wife was pregnant...I simply cannot imagine....
    • echolalia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1There's plenty of time to react. The pitcher is just as far away, and if the ball was hit at him there's a good chance he would have caught it. The ball didn't have to have been hit that hard if it hits the right place on the coaches head.
  • newbis, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I can't believe that happened. Just a few quick points to make though.
    1. Wooden bats break. If the bat breaks not all the momentum can be transferred to the ball.
    2. Maybe the video isn't being released out of respect for the family. Would you want half a million people watching your significant other die?
  • B52doc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Baseball players should wear football protection gear instead. Reduces chance of accident to 0.000001 percent.
  • robinross78, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0very tragic story!
  • drewerdy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0This is really sad, and for lack of better protective gear this could possibly happen more and more. I think that protective gear would absolutely help or at least the line coaches should be forced to wear a helmet!!! It could save some lives, and after this incident there is no time like the present to start protecting the coaches the same way the players are.
  • p38fighter, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0This is a horrific story!
  • mooresm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Glenallen Hill, the first base coach for the Colorado Rockies, parent club of the Tulsa Drillers, started wearing a helmet last night as a result of this incident. He say's he'll wear the helmet in the coaching box from now on.
  • iVision, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0If he was at the first base box, why did it hit him in on the right side of his head?
  • imacsaint, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1http://www.sitestotal.com/sports/mike-coolbaugh-video-killed-by-line-drive/

    that was up originally but has been since removed

    Here's an audio clip from a sports commentator live
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC-_O7bi4yA
  • scottdaddy22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0So tragic, very sorry for the family, RIP.

    Bryan
    http://www.racinsite.com
  •  

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