Christopher Daniel Cooper (October 31, 1978 – March 11, 2023) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

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 ...

, for

San Marino Baseball Club San Marino Baseball Club is a professional domestic baseball club based in San Marino. As of August 2021, they compete in Serie A1, the top tier of Italian baseball. Their current commercial name is T & A San Marino, because the team is primarily ...

in the

Italian Baseball League The Italian Baseball League (IBL; Italian: ') is a professional baseball league that is governed by FIBS (Italian Baseball & Softball Federation), which has its headquarters in Rome. The IBL is a wood bat league in which both composite and alumi ...

. Cooper was drafted by the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

in the 35th round of the

2001 MLB Draft The 2001 First-Year Player Draft, Major League Baseball's annual amateur draft, was held on June 5 and 6. First round selections Supplemental First Round Selections Compensation Picks Background On June 1, 2001, Rolando Viera, a Cuban ba ...

out of the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25,400 ...

. He remained in the Mets farm system through 2006 and spent 2007 in the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball before going to Italy. Being of Italian descent, he played for the

Italy national baseball team The Italy national baseball team represents Italy in international baseball competitions. The Italian national team was ranked 17th in the world as of 2020. The team is managed by Mike Piazza, a former New York Mets player and Major League Baseb ...

in the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference tie ...

and

2013 World Baseball Classic The 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, held from March 2 to March 19, 2013. This was the third iteration of the WBC, following the two previous tournaments, held in 2006 and 2009. Unlike t ...

. Cooper died of a heart attack on March 11, 2023, at the age of 44.

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1978 births 2023 deaths Baseball pitchers 2009 World Baseball Classic players 2013 World Baseball Classic players Akron Aeros players Mahoning Valley Scrappers players Place of death missing Columbus RedStixx players Kinston Indians players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players York Revolution players Oklahoma City RedHawks players New Mexico Lobos baseball players Baseball players from Pittsburgh American people of Italian descent {{US-baseball-pitcher-1970s-stub