James Edwards"Scoops" Cooney
born: 08-24-1894, died: 08-07-1991

Jimmy Cooney
( click to enlarge )
Jimmy Cooney followed in his father'e footsteps and played short stop in major league baseball. His younger brother, Johnny played for 20 seasons, mostly as a pitcher. His father, Jimmy Sr. played three seasons, 2 1/2 with the Cubs between 1990 and 1892.

Jimmy, nicknamed "Scoops", started with the Boston Red Sox in 1917 but played in only 11 games. In 1919, he played in 5 games for the NY Giants. He then spent 4 years in Milwaukee playing for the Brewers of the American Association. He was purchased in May 1924 by the St. Louis Cardinals and played in 110 games and compiled a .295 batting average in 383 at bats. The following year, his playing time dropped off and his batting average drop, too. In 54 games, he had 187 at bats with a .273 average.

In the off season, the Chicago Cubs traded pitcher Vic Keen to St. Louis for Cooney. In 1926, Jimmy started in 141 games at short stop and went to the plate 513 times. His batting average was .251 with 129 hits including 18 doubles. Unfortunately for him, the Cubs acquired Woody English from Toledo and in 1927, manager Marse McCarthy selected Woody as the starting short stop and traded Jimmy to Philadelphia for two pitchers. In Philly, Cooney played in 76 games and batted .270. In the following winter he was traded to St. Louis and then picked up off waivers by the Boston Braves. He played in only 18 games in Boston before being purchased by Buffalo of the International League in June 1928.

Cooney major league lifetime batting average was .262 with 150 RBIs in 448 games. While in Chicago, Cooney entered the record books as the sixth player in the modern era to turn an unassisted triple play. On May 30, 1927, in the fourth inning of a game against Pittsburgh, Cooney caught a line drive hit by Paul Waner, stepped on second base to retire Lloyd Waner, and then tagged Clyde Barnhart coming down from first base. Ironically, Cooney himself was involved in another unassisted triple play in 1925. In that case, he was tagged out by Pittsburgh first basemen , Glenn Wright, when he was caugh too far off second base.