KANSAS CITY -- When Jose Contreras was sent from the Yankees to the White Sox at the 2004 Trade Deadline, he already knew quite a bit about new manager Ozzie Guillen.
The big right-hander, known as one of the nicest players in the game, wasn’t sure what to expect from his pitching coach, Don Cooper. Those doubts were washed away as soon as Contreras met the man known by many as simply Coop.
“On the day I met him, he gave me a hug like he knew me for a long time,” Contreras told MLB.com on Wednesday. “He spoke with me in Spanish a little bit. I said, ‘Ok, that’s good. That’s what I need.’”
Contreras woke up to the awful news Wednesday of Cooper’s passing at the age of 70, as was confirmed by his family. Upon hearing of Cooper’s death, Contreras said it felt the same as losing a family member.
What the sport lost was a true baseball original. Some describe Coop as old school, but much like Frank Sinatra, he did it his way and he did it to a great deal of success from July 22, 2002, until the end of the 2020 season. He touched so many lives and made history in ‘05, presiding over four straight complete games during the White Sox five-game American League Championship Series victory over the Angels en route to a World Series sweep of the Astros.
“He was a motivator type and a confidence type guy in terms of, anybody who knew Coop, knew he was kind of an East Coast [guy], where he originally was from, fast talking, could sell something,” said White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way. He could talk somebody up into thinking they were good. That’s really where I think his strength was.”
“Coop had a way of communicating to pitchers that was pretty much Coop,” said White Sox television analyst Steve Stone, who was friends with Cooper during his extended White Sox tenure. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anybody quite do [things] the way he wanted to do it. He was able to get his point across.”
That same attitude held true with the media. During one session, a reporter asked Cooper how John Danks was responding coming off shoulder surgery. Cooper shook his head and said something along the lines of “Pretty darn good for just having a metal rod stuck in his shoulder.”
His language wasn’t quite as PG-13 rated as the paraphrase quote might indicate. His pitchers were his guys -- his fraternity, if you will. He could talk them up. He could criticize them. But he wasn’t going to put up with anyone from the outside going after his guys.
“The people think it’s everything about baseball, baseball, baseball,” Contreras said. “He helped me a lot off the field, and my family.”
“It was because they know how much he cared,” said White Sox general manager Chris Getz, who was a player and front office member while Cooper was with the organization. “He cared about them as individuals. He made so many pitchers better through the years. He had that Northeast very direct personality that resonated really well within the White Sox culture and clubhouse and I think fans adored him as well.”
Getz spoke about making an error during a crucial point of an eventual loss to the Cubs, only to have Cooper be the first person to come to him and tell him to forget about it and get after things the next day. Contreras still talked to Cooper about his son, Joseph, a talented young hurler who is playing for Vanderbilt University.
“All the time,” said Contreras of his talks with Cooper. “He said, ‘You know what? Let him pitch. Let him throw everything. Forget about whatever happened.’”
With those words, Contreras tried to imitate Cooper’s unique vocal style before pausing, laughing and then growing introspective once again.
“Unbelievable,” Contreras said. “Very sad.”
John Ely only worked with Cooper during Spring Training, when he was called up to fill innings. But he still has nothing but positive memories of their interaction.
“He was a character but it was effortless. It was genuine,” Ely said. “He never tried to be a character. He was that way on and off the field and any time you ever talked to him. I can’t say enough about Coop. He was such a fun person to be around and no nonsense but also could joke around quite a bit.”
“Like a lot of the coaches we had on that team, he could take it as good as he could give it,” Konerko said. “He’d take abuse and give, and just had a ball doing it. That’s what I think of the most.”