* New book pays tribute to Mike Coolbaugh, baseball "lifers"

May 12, 2009

Our friend Jonathan Mayo contributed this review/author profile of Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America, as did our other friend, Stan Hochman of the Philadelphia Daily News.

Have you ever thought about the veteran minor league player, the one who has no longer has a realistic chance of making it to the big leagues but refuses to hang up his spikes? This was Mike Coolbaugh, the subject of S.L. Price’s new book. Coolbaugh, who played pro ball for 17 years, including 44 games in 2001-02 for the Milwaukee Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals, was killed when he was hit in the head by a line drive while coaching first base for the minor league Tulsa Drillers in 2007.

Mayo’s article paints a sensitive picture of these baseball lifers, who, at the expense of more lucrative situations, are “living’ the dream.”

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Tagged as: Jonathan Mayo, Mike Coolbaugh, S.L. Price

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