Where Have You Gone, Chad Cooper?
Chad, who swiped 25 bases that year, became the first Princeton player to lead the Appalachian League in stolen bases since Greg Sims in the franchise's inaugural 1988 campaign. He also paved the way for Nelson to continue this philosophy of using team speed to create runs in later years. This was demonstrated with back-to-base Appy League stolen base crowns achieved by former P-Rays Desmond Jennings and Michael Ross in 2006 and 2007 respectively.
The creativeness Cooper showed on the basepaths during his playing career still shines through today in his chosen profession of being a graphic artist. The tempo he once dictated on the basepaths is now unveiled by creating ads and artwork for the advertising agency that is his current employer.
Following his "retirement," Chad started back in 2005 as a student at Middle Tennessee State University, the same school from which he was an 11th round pick in the 2003 baseball draft. He remained at the school until obtaining his bachelors degree from MTSU.
"I got back into school and back with my friends and everything seemed to be alright. My brothers and I have always been interested in art and this seemed to be a real natural transition for me," said Cooper on life after baseball in a March 19 telephone interview.
Bookended around finishing work on his bachelors degree were two phases of professional baseball.
Phase one began with his 2003 arrival in Princeton for his professional rookie season and his "always on the run" personality helped him to navigate his way to the top of the league's stolen base ladder despite the many usual rookie pitfalls that attempted to derail him.
Of his rookie season, Cooper said, "It was a rush since I had just got done playing college baseball and I had to meet and learn how to play with a whole new set of guys. Princeton was a good starting place to develop my confidence. The pitching in the Appalachian League was a little bit tougher and I had to adjust to using a wooden bat." The successful adjustment he made to pro ball was reflected in 2003 Princeton statistics that showed him with a steady .264 batting average which was supplemented with 38 runs scored in 55 games played.
There was also the matter where his baserunning was important on a 2003 P-Rays' squad that only hit a total of 13 homers as a team for the entire season! Because of this power shortage, Cooper and his teammates sets their eyes on both his individual and the league team stolen base titles for the season, both of which were eventually achieved. He does remember though, how competitive it was getting there.
Especially memorable for Cooper was his battle for the 2003 league stolen base title with outfielder Chris Young of the Bristol White Sox in the season's final days. The P-Rays final two games of the 2003 season were at Hunnicutt Field versus the Burlington Indians and Cooper made it into a one-man show in back-to-back contests.
"(Coach) Manny Castillo told me to steal every time I got on base. The guy from the White Sox was pretty close to me in steals and I was looking to put a nail in the coffin," remembered Cooper, who added that (P-Rays' manager) Jamie Nelson joked that he would take him out when he got three hits for the game both nights.
The "joke" turned into reality as Cooper went 3-4 with a double, a run scored, and two stolen bases versus the B-Tribe on August 24 and then turned it up again in a Princeton 2-0 season finale victory the following night by recording a 3-3 performance at the plate with a triple, two runs scored and two more stolen bases. The four stolen bases he swiped in those final two games also was his final margin of victory over Young for the stolen base title. Clutch-that was Chad Cooper for the 2003 Princeton Rays. It also earned him an end-of-season promotion to Tampa Bay's short-A team, the Hudson Valley Renegades, where he played eight more games to end his body of work for 2003.
That short Hudson Valley trial at the end of the 2003 season in turned landed him a promotion to the Renegades again full-time for the entire 2004 season, where he hit a solid .272 in 45 games. However, a different fate awaited him in the following spring training term when he was released by Tampa Bay.
The decision was then made by Chad to fight on in his quest to make his mark in the professional game by hooking on with the Elmira, NY franchise of the independent Can-Am League for the 2005 season. He soon developed strong opinions for the difference between playing in independent and affiliated professional baseball.
"I never really felt good about playing in Elmira that summer. It just wasn't as structured or organized as what I was used to," said Cooper.
At that point, he made the decision to return to MTSU to pursue his degree in the fall of 2005 and start building his career in art. However, as has happened with so many others, the pull of playing baseball came tugging at him one more time in the form of a telephone call and a Double-A contract offer from the Colorado Rockies if Chad would report for spring training in 2006. Offer accepted.
"The Rockies told me they needed a second baseman so I decided to report. I only had a month to get ready and got out there and hit the ball the best I ever did in my life. I felt I outplayed all my competition at second base but I got released just three days before the end of spring training," Cooper recalled.
This then cemented Cooper's decision to run full speed ahead toward the college degree he eventually was awarded. However, the game will always be somewhere on his mind.
"I would like to stay with baseball in some fashion. I'd like to get into scouting but I've found it is a tough field to break into. I've also thought about coaching high school ball someday to learn some organizational skills and then try to advance into college or minor league or even major league coaching," said Cooper.
So how about his thoughts on the two players from his 2003 P-Rays squad that are still hanging around in pro baseball with seemingly the best chance to play major league baseball: pitcher James Houser and outfielder Shaun Cumberland?
"I knew back then that Cumberland had potential and that Houser did too, especially since they were both players just coming out of high school with a higher ceiling time to develop," summed up Cooper on these two players who are now in the Cincinnati and Tampa Bay organizations respectively. He added another player he liked from that 2003 P-Rays' contingent was outfielder Shane Shelley, whom Cooper thought with more playing time could have been a very good player because of the outstanding speed he possessed.
Speaking of Shane Shelley, he said that even now he does stay in touch with him and several of his former teammates and coaches, adding that he ran into fellow former P-Ray infielder Travis Beech in Tennessee, where he was coaching at the time.
Five months ago in an another connection of wordplay, Cooper, along with his fiancee' Gena Gattis, moved back to his hometown of Picture Rocks, PA. Is there any better named place for a young budding graphic artist to be living? For Chad Cooper, it just seems to fit. Just like he was the right fit at the right time for the "Runnin' Rays" of 2003.