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 ...

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