Cardinals’ Coleman Sidelined; Injured in Tarpaulin Accident

The St. Louis Cardinals’ hopes in the National League playoffs suffered a jolt Sunday when rookie outfielder Vince Coleman’s left ankle was pinned under a tarpaulin device, forcing him out of Game 4 against the Dodgers.

Coleman, the offensive catalyst of the Cardinals, stole 110 bases during the regular season, a rookie record.

After being removed from underneath the tarpaulin, which is powered by a motor and weighs 1,200 pounds, Coleman was examined at the scene by team trainer Gene Gieselmann and was taken from the field on a stretcher in great pain.

“He will obviously not play tonight,” said team doctor Stan London, “and there will be a further determination later.” Dr. London said the device rolled up the outside part of Coleman’s left leg.

“The circulatory and neuroligcal systems in the leg were intact and the ankle and knee joints were intact. It just hurts a lot,” said Dr. London.

“He was able to get his right foot out of the way but it caught his left foot,” said utility player Mike Jorgensen. Jorgensen said Coleman was facing home plate with his back to first base when he was caught in the device.

“We just rolled away the cage, we got the balls off the field,” said Jorgensen. “Vince was getting ready to throw his glove to (Coach) Dave Ricketts. He (Coleman) looked scared. He was hurting. I don’t think they (the grounds crew) were able to hear because of all the screaming.”

A crew was preparing to roll the tarpaulin onto the infield, to protect the artificial playing surface at Busch Memorial Stadium against a light rain, which had been falling most of the day.

Coleman was running in from the outfield, going into dugout when the tarp device was rolled out and ran over his leg.

His teammates, having just concluded batting practice, let out yells when Coleman was caught under the tarp.

“I was just turning around I heard this scream and the thing swallowed him up,” said third baseman Terry Pendleton.

Sunday night’s pitchers were a pair of left-handers, Jerry Reuss for Los Angeles and John Tudor for the Cards. It was Tudor’s second start of the series and Reuss’s first. Reuss had pitched in four previous NL playoffs, however, and was 0-6 in six starts.

Although light rain had fallen intermittently through the day, the National Weather Service said the outlook was no for no significant precipitation through the early evening hours.