Whenever I see a peculiar headline like the Associated Press' "Minor league coach dies after being struck by line drive during game" in my Brewers RSS feed, I take a quick look.
But this morning I read that the coach was former Brewers infielder, Mike Coolbaugh. According to the report, the first base coach of the Tulsa Drillers was hit in the head by a line drive and was pronounced dead at a North Little Rock, Ark. hospital.
I had never met the 35-year-old Coolbaugh, but I was certainly familiar with him. He traveled through the minors for 17 years, but had a stand-out Spring Training in 2001, and I was there to see it. Every year, my friends and I pick one Spring Training favorite, and Coolbaugh was the guy in '01. He earned a spot on the Brewers' roster, playing 39 games that season. The next season he played five with Cardinals.
Coolbaugh was married with two young sons and another child on the way.
Tusla Drillers president Chuck Lamson put it well: "He just joined the staff and was a former Driller player. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family."
“We came to know Mike both from his time with the Brewers and the Texas Rangers organization, and the news has hit us very hard,” said Brewers Special Assistant to the General Manager and Director of Player Development Reid Nichols. “Mike was a kind and hard working individual who lived life and played the game with great passion. He will be greatly missed.”
I always wished Coolbaugh would pan out after a long and challenging career in which he never gave up hope. It apparently wasn't meant to be. I share the thoughts of Lamson, Nichols and Brewers fans who saw Coolbaugh's one month of glory back in March 2001. Truly a sad story.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
