Coolbaugh, the Tulsa Drillers hitting coach, was struck by a foul ball while standing in the first-base coaching box on Sunday night. A preliminary autopsy report shows he died when a blood vessel burst in his neck.

Writing in today's Chicago Tribune, Rick Morrissey relates a chilling tale and a reminder that fans in the seats are also at risk.

Morrissey spoke with Larry Pittman, a Springfield, Missouri man, who was sitting behind home plate when Juan Encarnacion, on a rehab assignment with the Double-A team, fouled off a pitch.

"I got my head turned just a little bit and got my hands up, but the ball went right through my hands," Pittman, 47, said in a telephone interview. "I don't even think it touched my hands because they didn't hurt. I saw it come off the bat and it just got me square in the cheek.

"There was nothing I could do. And honestly, had I gotten out of the way, there was a 1-year-old child sitting on his mama's lap right behind me. So that certainly would not have been good. But there was just no time."

It's why Pittman had four fractures in the left side of his face, why he had "10 or 12" bone chips and why he had to have a titanium plate surgically implanted in his cheek.

Fractures, a dozen bone chips and a titanium plate. That hurts just reading about it. Pittman ends the piece with this quote.

"Something bad is going to happen. Something real bad is going to happen. And I don't mean at Springfield. I just mean in general. It's just a matter of time."