A year after a minor league first-base coach was killed by a foul ball, Major League Baseball now require all coaches to wear helmets on the baseball field.
On July 22, Mike Coolbaugh, 35, the Tulsa Drillers’ hitting coach, died after he was struck in or near the head by a line drive while standing in the first-base coach’s box. An autopsy showed a burst blood vessel in his neck near his brain.
“The issue should be discussed because we had a situation where a tragedy befell someone on the field, and we are the guardians of the sport, and the general managers will make a decision to what level it should be implemented,” Jimmie Lee Solomon, M.L.B.’s executive vice president for baseball operations, said in a telephone interview.
“We want to think about ways that we could have a positive impact, and have looked at the fact that base runners use batting helmets, and we think we should extend that to the coaches at first and third base.”
Coaches at first and third base can be caught off guard by hard-hit balls because their duties often require them to keep an eye on base runners and fielders even as a pitch is being thrown.
Since Coolbaugh’s death, Rene Lachemann, the third-base coach for the Oakland Athletics, and Glenallen Hill, the first-base coach for the Colorado Rockies, have begun wearing helmets.
“I plan to play a few more rounds of golf in the off-season instead of pushing up daisies in the third-base coach’s box,” Lachemann told reporters shortly after he decided to wear the helmet.
Jerry Manuel, the Mets’ bench coach, who coached first base for the Mets in 2005 and third for Montreal from 1991-96, said he would protect himself if he went back to coaching on the field.
“At the age I am now, I will take chest protectors, shin guards, anything,” Manuel said. “In light of what happened, if you can prevent things from happening again, it is worth it.”
Photo AP Photo/David Zalubowski
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