Coaches adjust to 'helmet law'

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Glenn Hubbard trotted on the field Wednesday wearing a helmet — and feeling downright ridiculous.

"You know what it feels like?" he asked before a spring training game. "Look at that kid over there."

Hubbard, who played his high school baseball in Ogden, pointed toward a young batboy standing at the edge of the Atlanta Braves dugout, his head dutifully covered by a helmet.

"That's what I feel like," Hubbard said, not bothering to hide the disgust in his voice. "A batboy."

Actually, Hubbard is the first base coach of the Braves, a job he's always done with nothing more than a cap on his head. But last year's tragic death of minor league coach Mike Coolbaugh — the victim of a line drive to the neck — prompted the major leagues to take action.

Now, the coaches standing along each foul line in the majors must wear some sort of protective headgear. So Hubbard and Atlanta's third base coach, Brian Snitker, carried out their duties during an exhibition game against the University of Georgia wearing "skullcaps" — baseball slang for the flapless helmets that catchers wear along with their masks.

Hubbard wasn't happy about the mandate from higher up. He even threatened to adorn his helmet with advertising, like a NASCAR racer.

"We should have a choice in these things," he said. "My choice would be not to wear it. I'm only wearing it because it's a major league rule."

Coolbaugh, who was coaching first for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers, died last July after being hit with a line drive right below the left ear, causing a key blood vessel to burst.