Andrew James Coakley (November 20, 1882 – September 27, 1963) was an American
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
in
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
. He played for the
Philadelphia Athletics (1902–1906),
Cincinnati Reds (1907–1908),
Chicago Cubs (1908–1909), and
New York Highlanders
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one o ...
(1911).
Playing career
Coakley was born in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...
, in 1882. He helped the Athletics win the 1902 and 1905
American League
The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...
pennants and the Cubs win the
1908 World Series
The 1908 World Series was the championship series in Major League Baseball for the 1908 season. The fifth edition of the World Series, it matched the defending National League champion Chicago Cubs against the American League champion Detroit Ti ...
, though he did not play in the latter. Coakley was the last surviving member of the 1908 Cubs team. His only postseason appearance was a complete game 9–0 loss to the
New York Giants in the
1905 World Series. Although the Athletics gave up nine runs that day, Coakley was only charged with three earned runs, as the A's committed five errors behind him.
In nine MLB seasons, Coakley had a 58–59 win–loss record in 150 games, with 87 complete games, 11 shutouts, 3 saves, innings pitched, 1,021 hits allowed, 436 runs allowed, 9 home runs allowed, 314 walks, 428 strikeouts, 26 hit batsmen, 15 wild pitches, 2 balks, and a 2.35 earned run average. He ranks 21st among the
MLB career ERA leaders.
Later life
Following his playing career, Coakley coached baseball at
Williams College
Williams College is a private liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a colonist from the Province of Massachusetts Bay who was kill ...
(1911–1913), and
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(pitching coach 1914, head coach 1915–1918, 1920–1951). In 1923,
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
was one of his players.
Coakley died in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
at the age of 80. He is interred at
Kensico Cemetery in
Valhalla, New York
Valhalla is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name was in ...
.
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coakley, Andy
1882 births
1963 deaths
Major League Baseball pitchers
Philadelphia Athletics players
Cincinnati Reds players
Chicago Cubs players
New York Highlanders players
Minor league baseball managers
Jersey City Skeeters players
Bloomfield-Long Branch Cubans players
Asbury Park Sea Urchins players
Columbia Lions baseball coaches
Williams Ephs baseball coaches
Baseball players from Providence, Rhode Island
Burials at Kensico Cemetery