Tulsa Drillers coach dies after getting hit in head by a liner

[scarfire]

July 23, 2007 - Tulsa Drillers first base coach Mike Coolbaugh was struck in the head by a line drive in the ninth inning of Sunday's game agains the Arkansas Travelers. After receiving CPR on the field, Coolbaugh was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead at 9:47PM.

The 35-year-old Coolbaugh had just joined the Drillers on July 3. The former Drillers player replaced Orlando Merced who had resigned earlier in the season.

read more at Tulsa Drillers

Scary stuffs can happen to you if you're 1st or 3rd base coach. Just be careful out there.

RIP, Mike Coolbaugh.

[Providence A's]

the guy was only 35...wow. RIP.

[scarfire]

The worst scenario is that his wife is going to have a baby soon. They have two children, I feel so bad for this young family.

[brewersfan19]

Very Sad. My Prayers And Thoughts Go Out To Him And His Family!!!



Rest In Peace!!!


God Bless!!!!!!!

[browntown653]

How do you think the guy who hit the line drive feels too...RIP this is awful

[realmofotalk]

He was just three weeks into the job, too. R.I.P.

Quite frankly, if this doesn't prompt from coaches from wearing a batting helmet when they're on the field then I don't know what will.

[love_that_reefer]

Didn't this guy play with the Rangers? Terrible way to go. Damn you Orlando Merced!!

[scarfire]

More info came in...

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- A preliminary autopsy report shows that a burst blood vessel in Mike Coolbaugh's neck, near his brain, killed the Tulsa Drillers hitting coach when he was hit by a batted ball on Sunday.

"It hit him in the back of the left side of his neck, kind of right below the ear," Pulaski County coroner Mark Malcolm said.


The ball compressed the left vertebral artery, which travels up the left side of the spinal column and provides blood to the brain. The artery compressed against the vertebra at the top of his spine, right at the base of the skull, and a hemorrhage was the result, Malcolm said.

ESPN - Coroner: Ruptured neck artery killed Coolbaugh - Minor Leagues