NECBL Mourns Passing of Joel Cooney
The New England Collegiate Baseball League mourned the passing of Joel Cooney on Friday, January 25th. Cooney, 67, was inducted into the NECBL’s Hall of Fame this past November. He served as the League’s original statistician, and later held the posts of President, Commissioner, Executive Vice President and Treasurer.
“From the League’s beginning, Joel Cooney was indispensable to the birth and growth of the NECBL,” declares the League’s Hall of Fame.
Cooney was elected President of the League in 1995. At the time, The New England League played in just two states. That year, Cooney led a successful delegation to the American Baseball Coaches Association meeting in Nashville, where the NECBL received NCAA sanctioning and Major League Baseball funding-two enormous steps in giving the League viability and prominence.
Cooney also presided over expansion into a third state- Rhode Island- in 1996 and later added the Torrington Twisters (now New Bedford Bay Sox) into the League in 1997. That same year, Cooney became Commissioner as the Presidency of the League was transferred to Fay Vincent, the former Commissioner of Major League Baseball. Bringing Vincent on board gave the NECBL additional national headlines.
Cooney served as commissioner until 2003, by which time every single New England state had an NECBL team. They are still the only League to hold that claim.
While the NECBL knows Cooney in the context of a leader and a visionary in baseball, he was many other things to many other people. Cooney worked as an Aerospace Engineer, retiring from GE Aviation in 2012. The Glastonbury, CT resident was an avid boater and fisherman, besides being a huge baseball fan.
His son Kyle played in the NECBL in 1994, the year it was founded. It still remains his 13-year old grandson Brayden’s dream to play in the League that his granddad was so instrumental in establishing and getting off the ground.
The family will receive relatives and friends at the John J. Ferry & Sons Funeral Home, 88 E. Main Street in Meriden, CT on Wednesday January 30th from 4pm to 8 pm. A private burial service will be held the next day.
Per the family’s request, donations can be mailed to the New England Collegiate Baseball League to the attention of Commissioner Sean McGrath, 28 Kateley Lane, North Adams, MA 01247.
The NECBL gratefully thanks Joel for his lifetime of service to the League, and solemnly remembers his family in our prayers.
