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| Sunday, April 1 | |||||
| Mets prospect Cole killed in car crash | |||||
SNEADS, Fla. – Brian Cole, among the top prospects in the
New York Mets' farm system, died when he was ejected from his SUV
after it crashed in the Florida Panhandle.
Cole, 22, was not wearing a seat belt when his Ford Explorer
overturned as he drove home Saturday from spring training in Port
St. Lucie to Meridian, Miss., with his cousin, Ryan Cole, a Florida
Highway Patrol accident report said.
Mets spokesman Jay Horwitz said Cole was taking his Explorer
home and was to fly Sunday to Binghamton, N.Y., to join the Mets'
Double-A team for its season opener.
The one-car accident occurred on Interstate 10 near State
Highway 286, just south of the Georgia border and about 45 miles
northwest of Tallahassee.
Witnesses traveling behind Cole said they watched as his
Explorer veered into the median and re-entered the highway, said
Cpl. Ricky Warden, an FHP homicide investigator. Cole apparently
struggled to regain control of the truck before it turned over.
Cole, who was single and the youngest of five children, was
pronounced dead at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Ryan Cole, 17, was
treated and released.
Warden said there was no indication that alcohol or drugs were a
factor in the crash and that the accident remained under
investigation.
Explorers have been involved in several rollovers linked to
faulty tires, but the FHP said there is no indication of a tire
blowout on Cole's vehicle.
"Seat belts are important, especially in rollover conditions,
and we've got one person who remained in the vehicle and one who
didn't, so that's an area we're going to focus on," Warden said.
The Mets were at a team dinner in Pittsburgh following an
exhibition game Saturday against the Pirates when general manager
Steve Phillips received a telephone call with the news.
Phillips told the team and some of the players, who knew Cole
from spring training, started to cry.
Cole went to Meridian High School and was Baseball America's
junior college player of the year in 1998 at Navarro Junior College
in Texas. He was selected by the Mets in the 18th round of the 1998
amateur draft and turned down a football scholarship to Florida
State.
Cole had a combined 19 homers, 86 RBI and 69 steals last year
for Class A St. Lucie and Binghamton. He hit .312 with 54 steals
for St. Lucie and .278 with 15 steals at Binghamton.
He had a .306 average in the minor leagues with 135 steals, 42
homers and 193 RBI. Cole was 5-foot-9 and Baseball America wrote
that "if Cole were a couple of inches taller, he would have been a
much higher draft pick."
Cole was optioned by the Mets to Binghamton on March 17. He
batted .182 (2-for-11) for New York during spring training this
year with no homers, two RBI and three steals.
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