Friek Accident

Our local baseball team, the Tulsa Drillers, lost a member of their family last night in a friek accident. Hitting coach Mike Coolbaugh was hit in the head with a line drive last night in Little Rock. Witnesses say he barely had time to move out of the way when the ball caught him right in the temple and dropped him. When medical personnel arrived he was not breathing and he was pronounced dead at the hospital shortly after. Coach Coolbaugh was 35, married with 2 children and one on the way. Read more about this tragedy here.

I am amazed that stuff like this doesn't happen more often. Maybe not with the coaches but the pitchers. I assure you I will pay more attention when I am in the coaches box now.

Triple A Baseball

I got to attend my second ever Triple A baseball game last night (the first being the Memphis Redbirds with my good friend Scott). Last night was a fun night because I went to Bricktown in Oklahoma City and watched the Oklahoma City Redhawks play at AT&T Bricktown Ballpark.

I went with a friend of mine from church, Clint, who played a few years in the Cincinnati Reds organization. One of his friends from that time, Andrew Beattie, plays for the Albuquerque Isotopes. So Andrew got us tickets to come down and watch. Unfortunately he did not have such a great game and the Redhawks won. It was fun meeting him and we went out afterwards so he and Clint could catch up. I also got to meet another former teammate of Clint's, John Koronka. John spent all of last season pitching for the Texas Rangers but has been sent down so they can change some of his mechanics.

It was nice to be at a ballgame and nice to eat a good sports bar and grill (not Ferottos, Jim). The place was called Coach's and was filled with sports memoriabilia. Good eats overlooking the ballpark. You can see a picture from the restaurant overlooking the park. Sometimes it's nice to get away and watch some minor league baseball.

1st Time For Everything

I will tell you that last night was the first that I can recall this situation. I have talked to many people and they can't remember a time that it has happened either. I have lived in Oklahoma most of my life and I can't remember a time that a baseball game has been called due to SNOW!!! But last night, on the 5th of April, our varsity baseball game was called in the 7th inning due to snow. Luckily we were winning at the time so we can chalk another win into the "W" column.

With that said, our varsity baseball team has now won 4 games. Which as a friend of mine pointed out last night, in a congratulatory way, that we have now won more games that our varsity football and varsity boys basketball teams combined.

Doesn't coaching sound fun?

JV's Rollin'

I am still alive for those of you wondering. I have just been extremely busy now that baseball has started. Here is a quick recap of the varsity season and then we can discuss my JV.

Opening day was this past Thursday and we won 17-3, pretty good outing. Friday we played and lost 8-3. And yesterday we opened conference play with the Indians and lost 7-2. The Indians host us this evening with our hopes of getting even on the season and in conference.

Saturday was opening day with the JV. We played a double header against the Hornets. Game one was a blow out, in fact, a run rule after 4 1/2 innings. Bulldogs 15 - Hornets 5. Game 2 did start the way we wanted. Our pitcher threw well but had some control problems and lacked defensive help. After the first inning it was 7-0. We slowly chipped away only to have the Hornets build a larger lead. In fact, we were about to be run ruled in the 5th but prevented the final run from crossing the plate. Heading into the last inning, we were down 11 - 8. You must keep in mind, this game has lasted all day (well over 3 hours), so my only hope is that we don't score only 3 and tie the game. Well we were able to score 1 run and had runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs, when our player hit a double down the leftfield line. Runner on second, 2 outs, tie ballgame. The next batter hits a little single and we score the winning run. Last night, we played the Indians as well. We were up 6-1 going into the 4th inning (JV normally plays 5 innings) and our pitching coach wants to get a few young varsity players some innings. Well after the top of the 5th inning the score is tied. I am just hoping we can score and not lose the game because of players that don't normally play JV. Our first batter hits the ball to the 3rd baseman who throws the ball away. Our runner gets to second and then the 1st baseman throws the ball away. Runner on third, no outs, tie game. Next batter hits a chopper to 3rd and my runner takes off, the 3rd baseman bobbled the ball and we win. JV record 3-0. We head with the varsity to the home of the Indians for a rematch. I'll keep you posted.

By the way, 24 was awesome last night. Any thoughts?

Update: I shouldn't have posted this today, my JV lost tonight in the bottom of the last inning.