Minor league coach died after being hit with line drive

[prohornblower]

This is very sad, obviously. He only took the job on July 3rd as well...as a pitcher, this was always a pretty scary thought for me, and part of the reason for wanting to get hitters out. You simply can't afford to have a hitter square-up a pitch often for fear of these fluke occurences.

As an aside, this hits home for me, as less than a month ago during a hockey game I had taken my helmet off for no more than 40 seconds during play, while sitting on the bench, to dry my hair/head and a puck came out of play and struck me very hard about an inch above the left temple. I remained conscious and was not concussed, but it obviously hurt like a bastard and I felt like a fool because play stopped. My vision was fine. I wasn't cut, but severely swollen. I sat out about 10 minutes and was OK to go in for the last 5 minutes of play.

Within the following week my only complaint was I felt a slight pressure imbalance in my left ear (just a little annoying...my hearing was fine), so I went to the ENT (who is studied in head/neck surgery) and he basically laughed it off and looked in my ear and said I was fine and that no internal leakage would be happening.

But anyway on the ride home from that game that night it really struck me how lucky I was. If the puck hits me an inch or two lower, it may be "lights out" at age 28, while my 21 year old brother was sitting 3 spots down from me on the same bench and saw it happen. Or it could have hit my left eye causing me to lose sight, etc. Some would say that I am fine, and thus, it must not have been a big deal, but I know better. I can't be results-oriented; I have to realize that if I get drilled in the head with a puck again, luck may not be on my side and that may be it. Or I could get hit 76 times without anything happening. Point is, I only take my helmet off when the puck is NOT in play. durrrrrr [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

Anyway, I feel like I'm on a freeroll now, but I wish I could say the same for Coolbaugh.

Cliche warning: Life is precious and we need to value every minute we have here.