Don Cooper’s baseball life took two very different turns. As a pitcher, he logged 44 big league games across three teams. As a coach, he became a fixture in the Chicago White Sox organization for more than three decades and helped shape one of the most respected pitching staffs in the sport.
Cooper died at 70.
His longest and most impactful stretch came in Chicago, where he spent 33 seasons in the White Sox organization from 1988 through 2020. Eighteen of those years came as the club’s pitching coach, and that run included the 2005 World Series title. That White Sox team made history by becoming the first since the 1928 New York Yankees to throw four straight complete games in a single postseason.
“He made so many pitchers better through the years,” former White Sox second baseman and current general manager Chris Getz told the team’s website. “He had that Northeast very direct personality that resonated really well within the White Sox culture and clubhouse and I think fans adored him as well.”
The organization also paid tribute to Cooper on social media, noting his 33 seasons with the franchise and sending condolences to his family, friends and fans.
Before he became a coaching mainstay, Cooper’s playing career moved through New York, Minnesota and Toronto. The Yankees drafted him in the 17th round out of the New York Institute of Technology in 1978. He later landed with the Twins through the 1980 Rule 5 draft and broke in with Minnesota in 1981, making 27 appearances and two starts while going 1-5 with a 4.30 ERA.
The Twins sent him to Toronto in December 1982 in a trade for Dave Baker. Cooper spent most of 1983 in Triple-A with the Syracuse Chiefs, where he worked out of the bullpen and went 10-5 with a 3.21 ERA. He appeared in four games for the Blue Jays that season, allowing four runs in 5.1 innings for a 6.75 ERA.
Toronto later traded him back to the Yankees in March 1984 for minor league outfielder Derwin McNealy. Cooper finished his major league career with seven appearances out of the Yankees’ bullpen in 1985, then spent his final two seasons in the minors in 1986 and 1987. His big league line closed at 1-6 with a 5.27 ERA.
But the real legacy came on the mound’s other side. Coaching was where Cooper found his greatest success, and former White Sox executive Ken Williams put it plainly: “I will always believe him to be one of the best pitching coaches the game has seen.”
From 2003 through 2020, White Sox pitching staffs ranked fourth in baseball in FanGraphs’ version of WAR, even as the team cycled through aces like Mark Buehrle and Chris Sale and dealt with uneven offense around them. Former players remembered Cooper’s personality just as much as his results.
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