Former 2-Month Phillie Dies

Sad news from baseballville: Mike Coolbaugh, a minor-league first base coach for the Rockies, was killed after being struck in the head by a line drive while standing in the first-base coach's box on Sunday.

FYI: Coolbaugh was signed by the Phils as a free agent on December 5, 2002, but was released 2 months later.

Scary stuff. Condolences to his family, and be careful out there, coaches.

He's a Schu-in

Some former-Phillie fodder for my fellow Phightins' fans:

Congrats are in order for the 2-time Phillie and perennial "best last name in footwear" Rick Spencer Schu who recently landed a job as the Arizona Diamondbacks hitting coach, replacing another former player, Kevin Seitzer. The D-backs are near the bottom of the National League in hitting in most categories, except for triples where they rank 2nd, probably due in large part to the massive field they play on at home. Otherwise, maybe a shake up will help light a fire on their collective rear-ends. And if anyone can do it, it's Rick Schu. (Huh?)

Perhaps you remember the journeyman Schu who landed with the Phils twice in his career. He filled in as Mike Schmidt's backup from 1984 through 1987, and was then shipped off to Baltimore, in one of the more famous no-name trades in Phillies' history: Rick Schu, Keith Hughes, and Jeff Stone cruised on down to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for Mike Young and a player to be named later (that player's name turned out to be Frank Bellino, FYI). Not quite a blockbuster deal there. Schu then came back in 1992 as a free agent and was released after the season. Apparently he disappeared from baseball for a while until 1995 when he signed with the Texas Rangers and things basically fizzled out from there, as he ended his career in 1996 with the Montreal Expos.

In nine seasons as a player, the D-backs' newly-minted batting coach hit a tepid .246, with his best season coming in 1986 where he hit .274 with a career high 8 homers in 92 games. Interestingly (well, to me, anyway) is that he hit 13 triples from 1984 to 1988, and then never hit another one again after that.

As a comparison, Kevin Seitzer, the man whom Schu kicked out as batting coach, hit a very respectable .295 over 12 seasons. His first three seasons were quite stellar with the Kansas City Royals, where he hit over .300 every year, and even managed to swat over 200 hits in 1987. The middle of his career was rather mild, but he heated up as a role player with the Milwaukee Brewers, as he hit over .300 for his last two seasons before hanging it up in 1996.

So once again, congrats to Coach Schu and we wish you many kicks in your new job. Show that Seitzer dude how it's done!

Major League Bravery, Major League Blunder

As you have likely heard by now, the Phillies players performed a very good deed over the past weekend during a game against the Rockies in Denver. As a nasty rain storm blew in, the grounds crew tried to lay the tarp but it quickly got out of control and actually trapped some crewmen. The Phils came to the rescue by running from the bench and holding the tarp down. Kudos to the Phightins' selflessness and bravery by jumping into action. Only one Rockies player came out to help, and that was their home field.

So I originally intended to discuss the topic in a totally different light (which I may yet do in a future post), but something really burned me between the time I started writing and, well, now.

I intended to click on over to YouTube and pop a link on this post to the video that I watched of the event on Monday. Well today I find the MLB has removed the video due to a copyright claim.

For the love of fungoes. Give me a break.

This unusual, memorable, unscripted moment did not even involve a moment of baseball. What's the harm in letting the public enjoy it? Let the viral nature of the internet take over and allow people to enjoy it freely.

The Phils didn't let go of the tarp. MLB should let go of this video... and let people enjoy it for the great moment it was.

To read more, here's a Google search about the tarp that didn't get away.

Pat Combs: Former Phils Phenom Faded Fast

Pat Combs pitched for the Phillies from 1989 to 1992. Unfortunately he is a now a case study in careers quickly careening out of control, as witnessed by his stats on baseball-reference.com. Check it:

1989: 4-0, 38 IP, 30 K's, 6 BB's, 2.09 ERA. Good stuff! Future star!
1990: 10-10, 183 IP, 108 K's, 86 BB's, 4.07 ERA. Ok, decent year.
1991: 2-6, 64 IP, 41 K's, 43 BB's, 4.90 ERA. Umm, what's going on here?
1992: 1-1, 18 IP, 11 K's, 12 BB's, 7.71 ERA. Bottom hath fallen out. Sorry Pat.

According to his Wikipedia entry, Mr. Combs actually zoomed from Single-A Clearwater to Double-A Reading to Triple-A Scranton to the big show all in one year-- 1989. Dang! Too fast, I wonder?

I have a theory about pitchers. Well it's probably not just my theory, but for the sake of this blog post just roll with it. Anyway, a pitcher will often come flying like bats out of hell from the minors to the majors and then pitch about 3-5 games of stellar baseball. And then, the pitcher hits a critical point. Either other teams catch up to him and start shellacking him (perhaps a result of better scouting reports, perhaps from the pitcher getting worn out by throwing his best stuff in a short amount of time, perhaps something else altogether), or he hits his stride and becomes a genuinely high-quality pitcher for the long haul.

At least this is what seems to happen with Phillies pitchers, and Combs was a prime example. He came storming into the majors in his first year. And then hitters caught up to him. And the rest is fodder for blogs like this one...

Welcome to Philadelphia, Jason Smith

Within the last week the Sixers drafted Jason Smith. And the Flyers traded for Jason Smith.

Yup, you heard right. Should be a fun year for sports news broadcasters in Philly.

I'm almost certain that players with the same full name playing on two different teams in Philadelphia has happened before, but I can't recall who that may have been.

Anybody with some help on this mind-bending issue?

Please?

Updates to follow if any are found!