The problem is that as far as this situation is concerned, the flapless helmet is completely useless. It covers a majority of your skull, which is nice. Unfortunately, the area that it covers (and I can attest to this, being a student going into the medical field) is the thickest and most sturdy part of your skull, the part of the head that needs protection the least. I personally have taken a couple of foul balls of my bare noggin, and it sucked for a little bit, but I'm doing just fine today.

The part of the brain that needs protected is the vulnerable area that is pretty much right along the brim of a ball cap - the temples and the bottom of the skull behind the ears. Even the full two-flap batting helmet won't protect that area properly if you turn the wrong way. Which is another part of what happened to Coolbaugh.

If you remember, part of the reason this was a fatal accident is because this high-velocity foul ball nailed him in his mastoid process - a bony protrusion at the base of the skull, immediately behind the ear. His death was less about lack of protection and more about turning at exactly the wrong angle to the ball and exposing one of the most vulnerable spots on his entire head. 

Sure, the creation of the rule, in spite of any whining and moaning that occurs, isn't hurting anybody. It also isn't helping anybody, either, and it very vaguely smacks of making a rule for the sake of saying "See? We have a rule for that." Of course, if you want to complain about it, you should probably have a better idea, and I think I do.

Since the most vulnerable part of the head is, almost exactly, the inch-and-a-half of your skull directly below the brim of your ball cap, here is what I propose. Find a way to create some sort of shield or collar, something that is rigid enough to absorb the blow of a baseball, but not so stiff as to be an impedance.  Something that a base coach can just tuck into the brim of his cap for the time that he is out there.

I think that this is a much more reasonable solution. It would be a more comprehensive solution without being any hindrance to the coaches' ability to do their jobs, and it would be easily and cheaply manufactured.

Instead of a goofy rule that helps nobody, come talk to me, Bud Selig. I'll give you all the answers so that no base coach will suffer the fate of Mike Coolbaugh again.