Sports Hotline
860-465-5756
Sunday, July 1, 2007
MATT COONEY CATCHES ON WITH BOSTON RED SOX
Realizing a dream, Arlington, Mass. native to sign with hometown team
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Catcher Matt Cooney (Arlington, MA) is expected to sign a free agent baseball contract with the Boston Red Sox Monday after being assigned to the club’s Gulf Coast League (rookie) affiliate at Fort Myers, Fla.
Cooney, 21, participated in an open tryout with the organization ten days ago at Hadlock Field, home of Boston’s Double A affiliate in Portland, Maine. He was contacted by Red Sox area scout Ray Fagnant of East Granby, Conn. Friday afternoon and flew Saturday morning to Fort Meyers, where he plans to sign a one-year contract Monday morning.
The 5-foot-11 inch, 220 pound right-handed hitter will become the second Eastern player this month to sign with a professional organization. Right-handed pitcher Jason LaVorgna of North Haven signed with the New York Mets after being drafted in the 35th round of the First Year Player draft June 8 and was assigned to New York’s Appalachian (rookie) League affiliate in Kingsport, Tenn.
“(Fagnant) left me a message on my phone (Friday), and he sounded happy, so I called him back right away,” recounted Cooney Sunday from Fort Myers, where he was scheduled to undergo a physical exam and sign his contract Monday morning. “When I called him back, he asked me how I was doing, and I say that I was doing good, and he said, ‘well, you’re going to be doing better’, and he asked me if I wanted to play for the Boston Red Sox. I said, ‘absolutely, are you kidding me.’”?
On Sunday at Fort Myers – while the GCL Red Sox were losing 7-0 to the GCL Pirates at Bradenton -- Cooney filled out paperwork, met with the strength and conditioning staff, and received his gear. He was hoping to take part in his first game as a Red Sox farmhand Monday when the GCL Red Sox hosted the division-leading Twins at noon. The Red Sox were 4-7 through games of Sunday. The 46-game season began June 19 and ends Aug. 26.
Cooney, a lifelong Red Sox fans who grew up less than ten miles from Fenway Park, will become the 30th Eastern baseball alumnus to sign a professional baseball contract with a major league organization, but the first to ink a contract with the Red Sox. Only two previous Eastern catchers have signed professional contracts, both as free agents. Mike Crosby was signed by Cleveland in 1992 and Roger Dean by Detroit in 1984.
Cooney was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starter for Eastern, earning third-team All-New England and second-team All-Little East Conference honors as a co-captain this past spring. A member of three regional championship teams, Cooney served as a backstop to three pitchers who have gone on to sign professional baseball contracts: right-handers LaVorgna and Joey Serfass (2004) with the New York Mets and lefty Ryan DiPietro (2005) with the Kansas City Royals.
This past spring, Cooney appeared in all but one game for the 38-12 Warriors, starting 48, and setting personal career-highs in most every offensive category, including batting average (.308), hits (57), doubles (16), total bases (78), runs (37) and RBI (37). Defensively, he threw out 16 of 46 runners attempting to steal (34.8 per cent). He ranks fifth all-time in putouts (1,026) and fourth in defensive chances (1,180) and among the top ten in fielding average (.988).
With the Manchester Silkworms of the wood bat New England Collegiate Baseball League in the summers of 2005 and 2006, Cooney started 38 of the 39 games in which he appearing, batting .241 with a .980 fielding percentage for teams which qualified for the league playoffs.
Cooney did not expect to be among the 1,453 players taken in last month’s First Year Player Draft, but was hoping to be signed to a free agent contract soon afterward. When his phone never rang, he finally contacted Fagnant, who gave him a list of four tryout camps being offered by the Red Sox this summer. By attending the first one, Cooney impressed Fagnant with his determination. “He told me that the fact that I was there meant that I wanted to play, and that he would say something (to the Red Sox).”
Cooney also participated in a tryout in June with the Nashua Pride, an independent team managed by former Red Sox player and manager Butch Hobson. Cooney was encouraged by his performance that day, and heard indirectly that Hobson reported the results to the Red Sox.
“I threw really, really well at that tryout,” remembers Cooney, “and (Hobson) told me that he wanted to sign me, but that I didn’t belong there (with the Pride). When I asked him what he meant by that, he said, ‘you’ll find out.’”
On Friday, Cooney ‘found out’ when he returned Fagnant’s telephone call. According to Cooney, it was Fagnant’s persistence that finally convinced the Red Sox to offer him a contract. “He really liked me and was always pushing for me,” said Cooney of the veteran scout. “He always told me that he was working for me, and he finally got me. He’s a good guy and the main reason (that he was signed.).”
Boston drafted five catchers last month, three of them after their senior seasons in college and two out of high school. The college catchers drafted by Boston were Cumberland, RI native Dan Milano, a 20th-round pick out of Northeastern University; 30th round pick Will Vazquez out of Kent State University; and Peter Gilardo, chosen in the 45th round out of Dominican College.
Gilardo is the only one of the four catchers listed on the GCL Red Sox roster taken in this year’s draft, the others having begun their professional careers in 2006. Vazquez began the season in the GCL but has recently joined the Lowell Spinners of the Class A short-season New York-Penn League.
