Mike Coolbaugh died from being hit in the neck/head while coaching first base in July of 2007. His Jersey was retired last night in the 6th inning with his wife and children being in attendance. Here is a little information on Mike
sounds like a good guy, it is certainly one of the risks of the game. Some base coaches have taken to wearing the no flap batting helmets for some protection. Still, any time you have that ball flying around.. you can never be protected. I once took a line drive to the neck (carotid artery to be specific).. I was feeding a machine behind an L-Screen. I was 100% protected. What we didn't know was that a few knots in the net were weak and a kid hit a perfect line drive right at that spot. The net didn't even slow it down according to those who saw it in the bleachers. I felt fine for about a minute or two until the swelling started, then the world started spinning. I made my way to the dugout to throw an ice pack on it for a while to knock down the swelling. When the swelling went down, the blood flow seemed fine. I taped the pack to my neck and continued.. but I always thought.. had my head been a bit higher, it would have caught me in the temple and that might have been it... at baseball practice, behind a new L-screen.. You never know.