Keep It Under Your Hat

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - Look out at any MLB or MiLB playing field this spring, and you'll see the quiet revolution.

A Look Back at 2007:
Last summer, after the tragic death of base coach Mike Coolbaugh, I was the lone voice in the wilderness, calling for required head-gear for base coaches (See: The Height of Cool, MAJOR BLOGS, 07.29.07).  I didn't get much support from anyone else in the media.  Even my good friend, the progressive PCL prez Branch Rickey, said that the base coaches themselves would nix helmets (VIP Room 08.02.07 )

Apparently I was not alone after all. I had the lawyers and the insurance actuaries on my side of this.  They put the buzz into the owners' ears prior to the fall bigwigs pow-wow that precedes the Winter Meetings.

MLB announced that they would require all base coaches to wear head gear. A hard hat may only keep a few of the annual beanings down, but it is at least something.

While I agree with Branch that it is by no means perfect, if the wearing of a helmet can reduce the number of injuries caused by a shot to the side of the head, then I'm all for it. 

Where MLB goes MiLB follows. So I was delighted to see the appearance this spring of helmet-clad base coaches working games and practices.

While I'm sure that the hot hats may have chafed the hides of a few base coaches, I'm sure that their wives, children, and SOs who would otherwise be laying them to rest, or feeding them green mushy stuff from a soft spoon while they vegetate after recovering from a serious skull compression are probably pretty darn happy that someone made their big little boys wear their rubbers when they go out in the rain.

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Fans took no notice. The games go on unchanged. Mike Coolbaugh would have died in either case, as the line drive that hit him struck him in the neck and burst an artery. Still, for his lovely wife and his children, there may be some small measure of comfort in knowing that, as senseless as the tragedy of Mike's passing was, his death on the field changed the game forever, and, thanks to it dropping the whole issue into the laps of MLB's insurers, for the better. 

 
-Brian ROSS