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I'd guess not a Spring Training rolls around where we don't mention Brian Cole, it's still sad to read about him and I suppose what might have been for him.
Tragedy haunts New York Mets in suit over prospect Brian Cole's 2001 death
On March 31, 2001, a 22-year-old outfielder named Brian Cole climbed into his 2001 Ford Explorer, a two-door SUV, and headed west from Port St. Lucie. His 17-year-old cousin, Ryan Cole, was along for the ride.
Spring training was over, and Cole - one of the brightest prospects in the Mets' farm system - was bound for a Double-A assignment in Binghamton, but not before he returned the Explorer to his parents' home in Mississippi.
Brian Cole never made it to his hometown of Meridian. In an accident whose cause remains a source of legal debate, Cole rolled the vehicle while traveling westbound on State Highway 8 near the Florida-Georgia border, was thrown from the vehicle, and died several hours later in a Florida hospital. His cousin, Ryan, was released from the hospital hours later.
While the Mets turn the page to a new season, one former team official is reliving that nightmarish episode in the organization's history: Former Mets general manager Jim Duquette traveled yesterday afternoon to Laurel, Miss. He is expected to testify there this morning, on the opening day of Gregory Cole v. Watson Quality Ford. Cole's family, including his father, Gregory, contends the promising baseball player's 2001 death was caused by his Explorer Sport's tendency to roll over and because of a defective seatbelt.
Undeniable in the tragedy is that Cole never had the opportunity to realize his potential. Along with Duquette, Mets '86 World Series hero Mookie Wilson is scheduled to take the stand in the coming weeks.
Their belief: Brian Cole should have been a major-league star.
"He probably would have come on the scene right with Jose Reyes in 2003," Duquette told the Daily News yesterday.
Cole, having completed spring training, was driving home before reporting to Double-A Binghamton when, the lawsuit contends, he veered to avoid a car that entered his lane on State Highway 8.
Cole's attorney says a defective seatbelt loosened while fastened, allowing Cole to be tossed from the vehicle, which was traveling at 45 mph. The attorney also suggests, as had been widely claimed at the time throughout the United States, that those Explorer vehicles tend to roll over when a tire blows out because of instability in the faulty design.
The player's cousin, Ryan Cole, was also buckled.
Ford blames speeding, up to 70 mph, and reckless driving.
The trial is taking place in Judge Billy Joe Landrum's courtroom at the Jones County Courthouse, not far from the home of Cole's parents. The Cole family is represented by Tab Turner, an Arkansas attorney who has made a career out of bringing product-liability lawsuits against the Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone-Firestone tires. Ultimately, 3.85 million Firestone tires were recalled a decade ago because of a defect that resulted in tire tread separation.
Walker W. Jones, a Jackson attorney representing Ford, did not immediately return The News' requests for comment yesterday.
Turner will seek to prove that the design of Cole's seatbelt enabled the ejection.
The case already has been brought to trial once, and ended with a mistrial. Jury selection took place Monday in a case that could take several weeks, while both sides bring various engineering experts to the stand to speak about the Ford Explorer.
Wilson was a Mets coach during Cole's time in the organization. According to Turner, he will suggest that Cole could have had a career comparable to that of Kirby Puckett, the Hall of Fame outfielder who played for the Minnesota Twins. Padres closer Heath Bell, a teammate of Cole's in the minors, yesterday predicted the outfielder could have earned $100 million in a major-league career. Bell recalled Mets officials once asking Cole to go to instructional league to learn to switch-hit. Cole immediately proceeded to pick up a bat and, albeit with an ugly lefty swing, Bell says "he crushed the ball."
"I don't remember him swinging and missing ever," Bell said. "We used to have conversations. I said, 'I would never want to face you because I never see you swing and miss.'
"He was one of those guys you wish you saw him play in the big leagues. He was a little guy, but he hit for power. He had speed. And he hit for average."
Duquette remembered Cole as having the total athletic package, so much so that Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden continued to recruit him as a defensive back even after Cole signed a professional baseball contract for $100,000 and was playing in Columbia, S.C., in 1999.
Cole would put the football coach on a speakerphone in the clubhouse so his teammates could listen. He then would good-naturedly decline Bowden's overtures.
"Brian would say, 'No sir. No sir. If you want me to be tailback, I'll come and play for you,' " Duquette recalled.
Cole was so popular, and his minor-league teammates were so devastated by his death, that pitcher Pat Strange named his son, born in February of 2003, Brian Cole Strange. A tribute, which includes a bat and photos of Cole, remains in the front office of the Class-A St. Lucie Mets, the last full-season team on which he played. His No. 6 is retired there.
"You plug David Wright in the middle of the lineup," Duquette said, "and we would have had an unbelievable core group of guys from our own system."
Walker W. Jones, a Jackson attorney representing Ford, did not immediately return The News' requests for comment yesterday.
Turner will seek to prove that the design of Cole's seatbelt enabled the ejection.
The case already has been brought to trial once, and ended with a mistrial. Jury selection took place Monday in a case that could take several weeks, while both sides bring various engineering experts to the stand to speak about the Ford Explorer.
Wilson was a Mets coach during Cole's time in the organization. According to Turner, he will suggest that Cole could have had a career comparable to that of Kirby Puckett, the Hall of Fame outfielder who played for the Minnesota Twins. Padres closer Heath Bell, a teammate of Cole's in the minors, yesterday predicted the outfielder could have earned $100 million in a major-league career. Bell recalled Mets officials once asking Cole to go to instructional league to learn to switch-hit. Cole immediately proceeded to pick up a bat and, albeit with an ugly lefty swing, Bell says "he crushed the ball."
"I don't remember him swinging and missing ever," Bell said. "We used to have conversations. I said, 'I would never want to face you because I never see you swing and miss.'
"He was one of those guys you wish you saw him play in the big leagues. He was a little guy, but he hit for power. He had speed. And he hit for average."
Duquette remembered Cole as having the total athletic package, so much so that Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden continued to recruit him as a defensive back even after Cole signed a professional baseball contract for $100,000 and was playing in Columbia, S.C., in 1999.
Cole would put the football coach on a speakerphone in the clubhouse so his teammates could listen. He then would good-naturedly decline Bowden's overtures.
"Brian would say, 'No sir. No sir. If you want me to be tailback, I'll come and play for you,' " Duquette recalled.
Cole was so popular, and his minor-league teammates were so devastated by his death, that pitcher Pat Strange named his son, born in February of 2003, Brian Cole Strange. A tribute, which includes a bat and photos of Cole, remains in the front office of the Class-A St. Lucie Mets, the last full-season team on which he played. His No. 6 is retired there.
"You plug David Wright in the middle of the lineup," Duquette said, "and we would have had an unbelievable core group of guys from our own system." |
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