Chris Cooper’s baseball journey has mimicked a journeyman minor leaguer’s in many ways. His ventures have placed him in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Bowie, Md.; Georgetown, Del.; and finally Albuquerque, and that’s only during his high school and college days. Now, Cooper’s traveling show hits the big time: Major League Baseball.
The senior left-handed pitcher who anchored the UNM baseball team’s pitching staff for the past two seasons will pitch for the Cleveland Indians, which drafted him in the 35th round on Wednesday, the second day of the Major League Baseball draft.
Cooper said he is happy with the selection and he feels a weight has been lifted off him.
“It’s every player’s goal, and it becomes more of a reality the older you get,” Cooper said in a telephone interview from his parent’s house in Pittsburgh. “It’s a great feeling.”
Cooper said he is especially happy that the Indians picked him because the team has been scouting him since he started pitching at UNM in 1999. Cleveland’s scout, Keith Boeck, is a friend of UNM assistant coach Mark Martinez and has been the one following Cooper’s career. Martinez said he and Boeck talked a lot about Cooper, but Cooper did the best selling job.
“Me and Keith are friends and had a lot of discussions, but it makes no difference from the professional end of it,” Martinez said. “Chris performed well enough to get drafted. It’s hard work and him performing at the right times that got him there.”
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Cooper said Boeck saw him at the Mountain West Conference Tournament in May and wanted to know where he would be during the draft.
“I’m happy to be picked by them,” Cooper said. “They had the most interest. It’s better than being drafted by someone who only saw me once.”
Martinez said Cooper was picked so low — he was the 1,057th player chosen –– because he was a senior, which will cut down on his salary.
“Teams waited a while to take him,” Martinez said. “If he was a junior, he might have been drafted higher.”
For Cooper, it is the culmination of a long journey that has seen him move from place to place in order to reach his goal.
He played most of his high school career at North Allegheny High School in Pittsburgh, leading his team to a AAA state title in his junior year in 1996. He moved to Bowie and attended Riverdale Baptist School to help cope with the death of his brother, Daniel, from leukemia in November of 1995. He then went to Delaware Technical and Community College in Georgetown, where he was a second team Division II Junior College All-American.
He transferred to UNM and became the team’s ace, going 9-3 in his junior season and leading the Mountain West in innings pitched (112 1/3 innings) and strikeouts (106). He followed that up with a 6-7 record this past season with a 5.48 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 111.2 innings. He finished second in the conference in innings pitched and was fourth in strikeouts. Cooper was twice named second-team all-conference for his efforts.
Now, Cooper plans to work his way up the Indians’ farm system. He said he could start with the team’s rookie league squad in Burlington, N.C., or possibly with one of Cleveland’s A clubs — the Kinston Indians in Kinston, N.C., or the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in Niles, Ohio. Cooper said he would like to go to Mahoning Valley because it is close to Pittsburgh and his family could see him play.
Notes: Senior pitcher Jeff Perez and junior outfielder Donny Sevieri were eligible for the baseball draft, but were not selected. Perez, a relief pitcher, was 2-3 on the season with a 5.21 ERA and recorded seven saves. Sevieri hit .324 with nine home runs and 40 RBIs.
