Heart of the Game: Life, Death, and Mercy in Minor League America by S.L. Price

From the Publisher

From the author of Pitching Around Fidel and Far Afield comes an account of the accidental death of minor league first base coach Mike Coolbaugh, illustrating the many ways in which baseball still has a hold on America.

Heart of the Game centers on the death of Mike Coolbaugh, a minor league coach who was killed on a sweltering Sunday evening in Little Rock in July 2007 when a foul ball rocketed off Tino Sanchez's bat. Coolbaugh died almost instantly, his body carted off the field of the Double-A Arkansas Travelers. He was thirty-five years old and the father of two; a third child was on the way.

Mike's exemplary life—his devotion to the game and to his family—is the spine of the story. But it isn't the drama. The drama is in the telling of what can happen when a projectile hits the human body, of the narratives of the remarkable people who happened to be in the ballpark at that fatal moment, of the impact of Coolbaugh's death on the man who hit the ball, and of all the lives left behind.

Price reveals anew that classic heart of Americana—small-town sports, small-town lives—and makes us understand that a game played away from the mindless churn of Internet blather and highlight shows can be more important than those played on the national stage.

Publishers Weekly

On July 22, 2007, minor league baseball player Tino Sanchez Jr. hit a foul ball that struck his team's recently hired first base coach, Mike Coolbaugh, at the precise point on the back of his neck to cut off blood to his brain, killing him instantly. Price (Far Afield) builds upon the article he wrote for Sports Illustrated to flesh out the lives of Sanchez and Coolbaugh, two "lifers" who devoted everything to the sport and got only fleeting glimpses of the major leagues in return. Price leans a bit too hard on the melodrama at first, but this story doesn't need a hard sell. As he gets into the ordinary, working-class struggles of his two subjects, the men become real, vibrant personalities-and the tragedy, when it finally comes, takes on all too human dimensions; Sanchez's despair over the accident is as heartbreaking to read about as the anguish of Coolbaugh's family. Price isn't the first to argue that minor league baseball, bracketed off from the glitz and scandals of the big leagues, is where the game's true emotional core can be found. But he's found a story that makes a powerful case for that argument. (June)

Kirkus Reviews

The life and death of 35-year-old Mike Coolbaugh, who was instantly killed by a line drive while coaching first base in a minor-league game in Little Rock, Ark., on July 22, 2007. Sports Illustrated senior writer Price (Far Afield: A Sportswriting Odyssey, 2007, etc.) structures the narrative to achieve maximum emotional impact. He first sketches that fatal moment, then retreats for 200 pages to summarize the lives of the principals before returning to Little Rock. This strategy stretches the dramatic irony-every word, deed and moment in the lives of Coolbaugh and those around him acquires deep poignancy-but threatens to sidetrack the story into sentimentality and mawkishness. But Price, a seasoned sportswriter, mostly avoids such dangers. Although Coolbaugh spent 17 years in the minor leagues-and had some outstanding seasons-he never got, writes Price, a "clean shot" at the majors. Things just happened: untimely injuries, more gifted players ahead of him on the depth charts. Price also relates the stories of the Coolbaugh family (brother Scott also played and coached pro ball), his marriage, his young children, other serious injuries and fatalities in baseball history and, most affectingly, of Tino Sanchez, the player who hit the killer liner and who has never really recovered, despite the overtures and good wishes of the Coolbaughs. Sanchez retired from professional baseball and returned to his native Puerto Rico. Price ably highlights all the cruel ironies, coincidences and improbabilities of the moment-the ball hit Coolbaugh in the most vulnerable square inch of the back of his skull. The author also coaxes everyone into speaking frankly-Coolbaugh's wife believes that God must havewanted her husband-and demonstrates how the tragedy brought out the best in people. A graceful account of how quickly the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd can dissipate into silence and tears. Agent: Andrew Blauner/Blauner Books Literary Agency

What People Are Saying

Robert Lipsyte
"Hear the heartbeat of America and feel its breath in this beautifully-told tale of love, fate, and forgiveness. The best sports book I've read in many seasons."--(Robert Lipsyte, former New York Times sports columnist)

Dave Barry
"[A] superbly written book ... a story that's both heartbreaking and uplifting, much like baseball itself."

Darryl Strawberry
"I was reminded, as I read HEART OF THE GAME, what baseball has meant to me. The story of Mike Coolbaugh's life and death will break your heart - and you won't ever look at the game in quite the same way."

Richard Ben Cramer
"It's a story of hard luck in a hard game but, in the lives of two minor leaguers, Scott Price reveals the code of baseball. This is one of the baseball books that will endure as long as the game is played."--(Richard Ben Cramer, author of "Joe Dimaggio: The Hero's Life")

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