Minor league coach killed by line drive during game

~ The Class AA Tulsa Drillers coach was struck in the first-base coach's box.

SAN ANTONIO -- Mike Coolbaugh became a coach with the Tulsa Drillers earlier this month not so much for the job itself, but because his little boys loved to see him on the baseball field.

"He had just started," said Coolbaugh's wife, Amanda, who is expecting their third child in October. "We were going to be done with it, but his kids wanted to see him."

Coolbaugh, 35, died Sunday after being struck in the head by a line drive as he stood in the first-base coach's box during a game in Arkansas.

The couple has two sons, Joseph, 5, and Jacob, 3.

"You couldn't have asked for a better father," Amanda Coolbaugh said through tears Monday in San Antonio. "He just paid attention to the boys, put them in clubs and sports ... volunteered time on their teams."

The game between the Class AA Drillers and Arkansas Travelers was suspended in the ninth inning Sunday after Coolbaugh was hit by a foul ball off the bat of Tino Sanchez. He was taken to Baptist Medical Center-North Little Rock, where he was pronounced dead at 9:47 p.m.

Arkansas was awarded a 7-3 victory Monday, the score at the time of the accident.

The Drillers, a Colorado Rockies affiliate, postponed Monday night's game against the Wichita Wranglers in Kansas.

"Our entire organization grieves at the death of Mike Coolbaugh," Rockies president Keli McGregor said. "We were shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the accident on Sunday evening. Mike was a great husband, father, brother and friend to so many throughout the baseball community."

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 stopped breathing as his ambulance arrived at the hospital.

The former major leaguer who played 44 games for the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers over two seasons was remembered Monday as a generous man.

Coolbaugh was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 16th round in 1990.

He played third base and bounced around the minors for a decade before reaching the major leagues for the first time 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 82 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.

"Mike came from a baseball family, and he was a part of the baseball family," commissioner Bud Selig said. "On behalf of all of Major League Baseball, I extend my deepest sympathy to his wife Mandy, their children and all of their family and friends."

The Drillers said Monday they had established a memorial fund for Coolbaugh's family. Coolbaugh also played for the team briefly in 1996. The family said a friend also had set up a memorial fund in San Antonio.