For those that know "The Living Room" in Providence...

Randy the owner was killed last night in a car accident.





LINCOLN -- Randall C. Hien, the beloved coach who lead his Lincoln Little League team to the national championships in 2004 fter surviving a horrific head-on car crash earlier that year, was killed yesterday after being struck by a passing motorist when he got out of his truck on a local road, the police said.

Hien, 57, of Lincoln, the owner of the Living Room nightclub in Providence, had pulled his truck over on the side of Walker Street at about 11 a.m. yesterday, and had apparently gone to the left rear of his vehicle for something when he was hit by a passing motorist, said Chief Robert T. Kells.

Walker Street is in the Saylesville section and connects Lonsdale and Smithfield avenues. The other motorist -- whom police wouldn't identify yesterday -- pulled over and called the police. Hien was taken to Rhode Island Hospital where he was pronounced dead, Kells said. He said as of yesterday, no charges had been filed.

Kells said that Hien had coached some of the men on the Police Department. He remembered when Hien went to the Little League championships this summer how he had closed the Hien Family Restaurant on Front Street and hung a sign "Gone to Play Baseball."

Hien was well-known among Rhode Island musicians. Bob Giusti, 50, of North Providence, a drummer and business analyst for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, said that Hien concocted jobs for him to do around the nightclub so that he could also make a living as a musician.

"I was working and got hurt. He saw me in an arm sling and said that I cannot be doing something that is going to ruin my musical career," Giusti said. "He and his brother gave me odd jobs to do and worked my way up."

That kindness showed in his coaching too, friends said.

"He was a very gentle, happy man that loved his family and loved baseball," said John Sharkey, president of the Lincoln Little League. "He wasn't a disciplinarian. He would just communicate with each kid like nobody else, one on one. He wasn't a yeller. He'd always say, 'I like that kid.' "

"I was at one of his practices Saturday," Sharkey said, "and he had all the kids lined up on the first base and third base lines, instructing them on swinging the bat. They were free-swinging. He couldn't see all of them so he turns his hat around and puts his sunglasses on his neck, 'I'm watching yous all,' he said."

Parks and Recreation Director Paul Prachniak, who knew Hien since the 1970s, agreed. He said for years, he had a personal game of trying to get Hien to say something bad about one of his players.

"He never, never said a discouraging word about any kid, ever," Prachniak said. "I'd try to bait him, get him to say something bad, but he'd always say, 'Nah, he's an angel,' or 'He'll be all right.' "

One day this year, Prachniak said, he and Hien were talking about Lincoln's Little League team lineup and someone suggested putting a certain player at a different position.

"And Randy said, no he stinks," Prachniak said, "and I said 'See,' but then he said, 'No, it's because he's great over there.' "

Everyone noted the irony that Hien had survived the terrible accident on Feb. 16, 2004, only to die in another one two years later. Prachniak said Hien's handling of the 2004 accident also showed the measure of the man.

Then, Hien's car had been hit by a vehicle driven by Town Planner Albert V. Ranaldi Jr., who was cited for driving while intoxicated, and driving to endanger.

Hien suffered two broken legs and internal injuries from the crash.

But Hien went to court and asked that Ranaldi not be sent to jail.

"I told the judge I didn't want to see him go to jail," Hien said at the time. "He's not a drunk. He just made a mistake that night. I think he deserved a break."

The judge apparently agreed. After pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and driving to endanger, with serious injury resulting, Ranaldi received a five year suspended sentence and probation. In addition, he was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.

Prachniak said Hien's mercy was perfectly in keeping with his outlook.

"He could have been like the rest of us," Prachniak said. "That was never his route, vindictiveness. He never threw a pitch at the other player's head."

Hien had been active recently in efforts to get a new Little League field built in town.

"If we ever get that field," Sharkey said, " I guess we know what the name will be."