WildcatRick
07-06-2007, 12:14 PM
Those who think they've had a tumultuous past few months might want to check with Missoula Osprey catcher Sean Coughlin before boasting how wild their own ride has been.
Turn the calendar back to May 8, when the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Coughlin was in the process in completing his second and final season of baseball at the University of Kentucky. His phone rang around 8:15 a.m. with a Wildcats coach on the line asking Coughlin to join his teammates at the park.
“I thought it was going to be a regular call to help work out a pitcher in the bullpen and being a senior at the time, I kind of brushed it off and didn't call my coach back right away,” said Coughlin, who played his high school ball in Golden, Colo. “He called again about an hour later and said Clemens was talking to the team. So I immediately shot up and got there as soon as I could.”
Yes, Coughlin was referring to Roger Clemens, who just two days earlier announced to the crowd at Yankee Stadium that he would be making a return to the mound in Yankees' pinstripes this season. Clemens was making a surprise visit to Lexington, Ky., to hold a workout at Cliff Hagan Stadium before media crews that included ESPN - and Coughlin was missing it.
So, the tardy 22-year-old arrived to learn that Clemens wanted to throw a session in the pen and immediately used his seniority to ensure he would do the majority of catching for the future Hall of Famer's 70-pitch workout.
“It was an experience of a lifetime,” said Coughlin on Tuesday evening, just hours after Clemens had become only the eighth player in Major League history to win 350 games. “The knowledge he shared with us as a team and with me individually ... the value of it, coming from him is unexplainable.”
Less than two weeks later Coughlin completed his collegiate career with a typical performance in UK's season-ending 8-7 victory over Auburn. He'd gone 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/07/06/sports/zsports01.txt
Turn the calendar back to May 8, when the 6-foot-1, 215-pound Coughlin was in the process in completing his second and final season of baseball at the University of Kentucky. His phone rang around 8:15 a.m. with a Wildcats coach on the line asking Coughlin to join his teammates at the park.
“I thought it was going to be a regular call to help work out a pitcher in the bullpen and being a senior at the time, I kind of brushed it off and didn't call my coach back right away,” said Coughlin, who played his high school ball in Golden, Colo. “He called again about an hour later and said Clemens was talking to the team. So I immediately shot up and got there as soon as I could.”
Yes, Coughlin was referring to Roger Clemens, who just two days earlier announced to the crowd at Yankee Stadium that he would be making a return to the mound in Yankees' pinstripes this season. Clemens was making a surprise visit to Lexington, Ky., to hold a workout at Cliff Hagan Stadium before media crews that included ESPN - and Coughlin was missing it.
So, the tardy 22-year-old arrived to learn that Clemens wanted to throw a session in the pen and immediately used his seniority to ensure he would do the majority of catching for the future Hall of Famer's 70-pitch workout.
“It was an experience of a lifetime,” said Coughlin on Tuesday evening, just hours after Clemens had become only the eighth player in Major League history to win 350 games. “The knowledge he shared with us as a team and with me individually ... the value of it, coming from him is unexplainable.”
Less than two weeks later Coughlin completed his collegiate career with a typical performance in UK's season-ending 8-7 victory over Auburn. He'd gone 2-for-4 with a home run and four RBIs.
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2007/07/06/sports/zsports01.txt
