Baseball Tragedy in Arkansas...

[Dossenator]

Two double A baseball teams were playing in Little Rock last night...the Tulsa Drillers (Colorado Rockies) and the hometown Arkansas Travelers (LA Angels). A line drive was hit foul and struck the first base coach for the Travelers. The first base coach was pronounced dead when they arrived at the hospital. He was just in his 30's, had two young kids, and his wife is pregnant. It is actually amazing that things like this do not happen more often.

Here is the story:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=a ... &type=lgns

[Yeofoot]

That is truly stad

[Spence]

I read about that. It is very sad and freak. I played ball for a very long time and have been hit lots of times. Never was it ever life threatening. I did get two black eyes one time.

[donovan]

Like Spence, have been on baseball fields most of my life....have seen many hit by balls,,,bats,,,,few fists...have seen taken off by para medics.....but never such an accident.

In school ball if players...students..are coaching third or first they are required to wear batting helments....I would suppose you may see this happen in the bigs....wives are big motivators.

I remember when Herb Score was hit in the eye. Terrible......

This is sad....Seemed like an up and comming guy.

[Spence]

I played with a guy who was hit in the chest. In the heart, actually, and his heart stopped for a few seconds. He has a ball shaped "dent" in his chest to this day. Still, if you are paying attention, extreme accidents like these are as unlikely as they are tragic.

I have played, umpired, and coached hundreds if not thousands of games. I have watched many more. I have taken balls off most every part of my body. Although this is sad to hear and terribly tragic for his family and those who knew him, it was just a freak accident. Like a kid walking on the side of a road and having a rock fly up and hit him in the head. A one in a million tragedy.

[Eric]

I think he's only the 2nd person to ever die in a major baseball game from the minors and higher. I'm sure there have been incidents at other times, but that's pretty rare.

[Spence]

Yes, it is really a freak thing. Still that doesn't matter to his wife and kids. It is very sad when children do not have one or both of their parents growing up. It is very sad when a father can't see his children learn how to drive a car or graduate. When he doesn't get to meet his grandchildren. When he doesn't get to share what he has learned in life with his children. That is the hard part of fatal accidents.

[Eric]

Yep, it doesn't matter how rare it is, it's extremely tragic nonetheless.