Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Iraq War Veteran Signs with Padres
Whether or not you advocate the United States' involvement in current War in Iraq, it is a no brainer that you should support the livelihood and well-being of U.S. soldiers. Further, we should all hope and pray that Iraq war veterans can return and live successful lives in the U.S. Even further, when one has suffered permanent disability and can go on to live a successful life, we certainly should celebrate that. And when this occurs and it relates to sports, I'm certainly going to write about it...
Yesterday it was announced that the San Diego Padres have agreed to a minor league deal with Brandon Cooper and he will be invited to participate at Padres' spring training with other minor leaguers. Cooper, is not your ordinary 22-year old right-hander, as he is also a Purple Heart recipient and Marine corporal whose service includes two tours of duty in Iraq.
But there's even more, Cooper only has 9 fingers. Apparently, "Cooper sustained wounds to his left hand during his second deployment, which resulted in his being sent to San Diego Navy Medical Center. " Obviously missing his left pinky won't affect the right-handed pitcher, but nonetheless it is great to see him overcome his handicap.
The best part about this signing is the fact that Cooper seems to have a legitimate chance of being successful. According to team spokesman George Stieren:
"Padres general manager Kevin Towers was adamant that we were doing this because of his potential, not because it was a great story. This was a legitimate baseball decision."
Good luck Cooper! I am sure not only all of us at WBRS Sports Blog but all baseball fans in this country hope to see you in a Padres uniform some day!
15 Comments:
What a neat story. I am with you, I definitely hope to see him playing with the Padres!
Very cool story.
Hopefully he does better than Garth Brooks (didn't he play in the Minors for a while?)
Yeah I heard about this earlier today. Good story all around. Nice to see some positive sprinkled in with all the scandal once in a while isn't it?
Cooper Brannan is an inspiration for all young war veterans. Hopefully he can make his way to the "Show" in a couple of years. This is nothing like the Garth Brooks spring training "tryout". That was an embarrasment to the sport and it all happened b/c he has money. Brannon sounds like he has some actual talent and could blossom into a servicable professional pitcher.
That is fantastic. I hope he does well. Maybe he can help Jake Peavy gain a little a perspective and get back on the track he was on to be one of the best pitchers in the league.
Paahcs "Doc" Ymerej
Flash Sports Tonight
http://www.flashsportstonight.com
Great story. Best of luck to Cooper!
Good for him, I hope he makes a nice run at the show.
I cerainly wish him the best! It is great to see our troops do stuff like this.
I was stationed in San Diego in the Marines from 99-03...a civilian lady I worked with had season tickets to the Padres and always gave me the tickets...she just wanted to collect these points to cash them in for merchandise. Anyway, the Padres do a lot for the military out there. There's USMC recruit training in Old Town, San Diego and the Padres invite the recruits and the drill instructors to attend games. Very patriotic.
Yeah he'll immeadiately become Antonio Alfonseca's arch enemy.
The odds are against a guy who is 22 and has already missed a few years of development time so I wouldn't count on him making it, but here's to hoping he does
Even more amazing is that the local morning sports radio show, Scott & BR on XX Sports had talked to the guy at a remote or something, were asked to make mention of him if possible, and during a weekly spot with Sandy Alderson said something about him,Alderson checked him out and here we are. They talked about it today and said that the minor league instructors said that if he followed their regimen,could bring his fastball up to the mid 90's from the mid/high 80's he's at now.
Sign Jim Abbott too.
Go Get Em Kid!
Maybe Alfonseca can lend him an extra finger.
-Darren @ SportsAgentBlog.com
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