Lesson Learned

by JA, The Feed

There's nothing funny about what happened to Mike Coolbaugh, the first base coach for AA Tulsa who was killed by a line drive that hit him in the coaching box on Sunday. In many ways it's shocking that nothing like this has ever happened before. I remember what seems like a hundred Gary Sheffield laser beams that just missed third base coaches at the Stadium over the years he was in pinstripes. That none of them connected was pure luck and the injuries that would have ensued could have brought this to the forefront far earlier than this weekend.

Still I had to chuckle when I read an article in the Denver Post about Glenallen Hill, first base coach for the Rockies, wearing a helmet to do his duties during last night's game. I understand it, Tulsa is a Colorado affiliate, it's just that Hill has one of the most logic-defying injuries in the history of baseball already on his resume. A sufferer of arachnophobia, Hill was roused by a nightmare about spiders, got out of bed and fell down a staircase. He ended up on the disabled list. So when a guy should be wearing a helmet to sleep, I just figured, yeah, he probably should wear a helmet all the time.

But I thought about it a bit longer and, you know what, all baseline coaches should wear helmets. It took baseball 51 years after Ray Chapman was killed in 1920 to make batting helmets a mandatory part of the uniform. Some players wore them before 1971, when wearing the old-style, no-flap helmets became rule. Wearing one of the current earflap jobs were considered a wuss move, like visors on hockey helmets, even though players like Ron Santo started wearing them after injuries sustained by pitched balls. Still, I'm sure some Bostonians still wonder what Tony Conigliaro would have done if Jack Hamilton's pitch would have hit a helmet with the now-mandatory earflaps instead of his cheek and face in 1967. Those helmets weren't mandatory until 1983 and anytime you see a player get hit in the head but stay in the game you're seeing another Conigliaro moment averted because of a rule designed to keep people safe.

Maybe it's an overreaction to a freak incident but there's no reason for any player or coach to have his life in danger because of something easily preventable. Sure, a pitcher could still take a line drive right off the temple, like Bryce Florie did in 2000, but short of a catcher's mask there doesn't seem to be much way around that possibility. Hockey put nets up around all their rinks after a girl was killed by a puck in 2002 and that's after dozens of pucks flew into the stands without incident on a nightly basis. It's a small move to put helmets on those coaches who don't have a way of protecting themselves on the field, and it's probably not a bad idea for umpires either while we're at it, but it's one that could save another family their father and another stadium from sitting and watching a man die a death that could probably be prevented.