Brian Keith Cole (September 28, 1978 – March 31, 2001) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. Cole played in Minor League Baseball for the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

organization from 1998 to 2000, becoming one of the top prospects in baseball. He died in a car accident at the age of 22 in 2001.

Career

Cole was born in

Meridian, Mississippi Meridian is the List of municipalities in Mississippi, seventh largest city in the U.S. state of Mississippi, with a population of 41,148 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and an estimated population in 2018 of 36,347. It is the count ...

and attended Meridian High School. He played both baseball and

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

, scoring a school record 22

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Ameri ...

s in his senior year. He received numerous offers to play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

from Division I schools, but decided to pursue a career in baseball. The

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

selected Cole in the 36th round of the

1997 Major League Baseball Draft The 1997 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 2 and 3, 1997. A total of 1607 players were drafted over the course of 92 rounds. First round selections ...

, but he declined the Tigers $5,000 offer and instead attended

Navarro College Navarro College is a public community college in Texas with its main campus in Corsicana and branches in Fairfield, Mexia, Midlothian, and Waxahachie. The college has an annual student enrollment of more than 9,000 students. The Corsicana ...

. In his lone season at Navarro he hit .524 with 27

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, 82

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(RBI), 95

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls ...

and 49

stolen bases In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

in 60 games. For his play, he was named ''

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

's'' Junior College Player of the Year. Cole was then drafted by the

in the 18th round of the

1998 Major League Baseball Draft The 1998 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft of high school and college baseball players, was held on June 2 and 3, 1998. A total of 1445 players were drafted over the course of 50 rounds. First round selections ...

and chose to sign. He made his professional debut that season for the Kingsport Mets. After 56 games with Kingsport, he was promoted to the Pittsfield Mets, where he played in two games. Overall, he hit .298/.315/.487 with five home runs, 36 RBI and 16 stolen bases. Cole played the 1999 season with the

Capital City Bombers Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...

. In 125 games, he hit .316/.362/.522 with 18 home runs, 71 RBI and 50 stolen bases. Prior to the 2000 season, Baseball America ranked him as the Mets fourth best prospect. He started the season with the

St. Lucie Mets The St. Lucie Mets are a Minor League Baseball team of the Florida State League and the Single-A affiliate of the New York Mets. They are located in Port St. Lucie, Florida, and play their home games at Clover Park. The Mets have been members ...

. After hitting .312/.356/.528 with 15 home runs and 54 stolen bases in 91 games, he was promoted to the Double-A Binghamton Mets. He struggled early on, hitting only .136 in his first 59 bats, but rebounded to hit .350 over his next 117 at-bats. Overall, he hit .301/.347/.494 with 19 home runs, 86 RBI and 69 stolen bases. For his play, he was named the Mets Minor League Player of the Year and was honored in a pregame ceremony at Shea Stadium. After the season, he played for the

Scottsdale Scorpions The Scottsdale Scorpions are a baseball team that plays in the East Division of the Arizona Fall League. They play their home games in Scottsdale, Arizona, at Scottsdale Stadium, which is also the spring training facility of the San Francisco Gia ...

in the Arizona Fall League. Prior to the 2001 season, Cole was ranked by Baseball America as the Mets third best prospect and the 64th best in all of baseball. He was invited to

spring training Spring training is the preseason in Major League Baseball (MLB), a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for Schedule (workplace), roster and position spo ...

for the first time that season, where he impressed coaches, including

Mookie Wilson William Hayward "Mookie" Wilson (born February 9, 1956) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder and coach remembered as the Met who hit the ground ball that rolled through Bill Buckner's legs in the bottom of the 10th inning of ga ...

Death

On March 31, 2001, Cole was driving to his parents' home in Meridian from Mets spring training in

Port St. Lucie, Florida Port St. Lucie is a city in St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. It is the most populous municipality in the county with a population of 204,851 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. It is located southeast of Orlando, Florida, O ...

, when he lost control of his vehicle, causing it to roll numerous times and flip over. He had been trying to reenter the road after another car had entered his lane causing him to enter the median. Cole, who was not wearing his seat belt, was ejected from the car causing major injuries to his skull, brain, lungs and several other organs. He was taken to

Jackson Memorial Hospital Jackson Memorial Hospital (also known as "Jackson" or abbreviated "MJMH") is a non-profit, tertiary care hospital, the primary teaching hospital of the University of Miami's School of Medicine, and the largest hospital in the United States with 1,5 ...

where he was pronounced dead a few hours later. His cousin was also in the car, but was wearing a seat belt and avoided serious injury. In 2010, his family won $131 million in a lawsuit filed against the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

, claiming that the Ford Explorer (the car Cole was driving) is "defective and unreasonably dangerous for the uses for which it was marketed because the vehicle has an unreasonable tendency to roll when used as Ford marketed it to be used s a station wagon replacement and that the vehicle is also defective and unreasonably dangerous from an occupant protection or ' crashworthiness' standpoint because the safety belt failed to remain locked and permitted Brian to be thrown from the car and killed." Teammate and friend Pat Strange named his son Brian Cole Strange, in honor of Cole.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cole, Brian 1978 births 2001 deaths Sportspeople from Meridian, Mississippi Baseball players from Mississippi Navarro Bulldogs baseball players Kingsport Mets players Pittsfield Mets players Capital City Bombers players St. Lucie Mets players Binghamton Mets players Road incident deaths in Florida

Career

Death

See also

References

External links