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Baseball in the blood.
June 6, 2002
BY TED HUTTON
STAFF WRITER Even now, after four years, the doubts still rattle around in Florida Atlantic baseball coach Kevin Cooney's head. They start when a pitcher is struggling and it is time to go to the bullpen. Jim Cooney is a senior left-handed reliever, and the coach's son. And as much as Kevin Cooney tries to smother the father side of him so he can make the decision as just the coach, he still can't do it. The paternal feelings force their way in. The only thing that has changed over the four years Kevin Cooney has wrestled with these thoughts are the questions he asks himself while standing on the dugout steps.
"Initially, it was always, 'Is he the guy we shou8ld really use, or is it because he's my kid?'"Cooney said. "This year it developed into, "Is he really as good as he seems to be, or is it just that I want him to be that good?"
Compounding this is Kevin Cooney's self-avowed natural pessimism. "I never think my teams are as good as the other teams, so naturally I don't think my son is as good as the opposition," he said. This year Jim Cooney has been as good as he seems to be, as well as batter than the opponents he has faced. He is 2-0 with a 2.97 ERA and has pitched 37.1 innings in 27 appearances. This follows an erratic three years in which he pitched a total of 51.1 innings with a 5.64 ERA. With the starters and bullpen faltering in the last third of the season, Jim Cooney has helped provide stability. He also made several crucial appearances in FAU's regional win last weekend that has the Owls headed to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech in the best-of-three super regional that begins Friday.
GETTING REACQUAINTED Jim and younger brother Jeff stayed up north with their mother. "I never saw him much through high school," Kevin Cooney said. While in high school, Jim Cooney was a starting pitcher and good enough that Kevin Cooney thought he could help FAU. Before recruiting his son, he asked other coaches who had sons playing for them if it was worth it. "They all said yes, as long as he's a good-enough player," Cooney said. For Jim Cooney, moving to Florida meant being closer to his father and also playing year-round and at the Division I level. Neither has regrets, and both said the past four years have allowed them to share the game they love as well as make up for the years spent apart.
"I just have to remember he's my coach," Jim Cooney said about their relationship on the field. "I might talk back to my father or tell him I want to do it another way, but not my coach."
"It's tougher on my dad," he said. "I just wait to get my chance to pitch. I don't complain about not playing. I just get in there and do my job."
MORE DOUBTS
"I brought him in with the game tied and that was the first time I didn't have that tight, scared-to-death feeling for my son," Cooney said.
But last weekend, in the most important game in FAU history, the doubts were back. After losing to Alabama earlier Sunday, FAU was in a must-win game against the Crimson Tide that night.
It was the bottom of the sixth, and FAU had a 4-2 lead. But starter Nelson Lopez had walked two batters.
Cooney said he was ready to put Jim in the game, but was concerned about pitching him too much, needing at least six outs before going to closer Tim McNab.
"That was a coach, not a dad," Cooney said, but three days after the event, he does not sound convinced.
Instead, Cooney brought in another reliever who gave up a home run that gave Alabama a 5-4 lead and unleashed the roar of the nearly 4,000 Alabama fans.
Kevin Cooney then called for his son.
Jim Cooney got five straight Alabama batters out, and FAU scratched out two runs to take the lead.
McNab came in and closed out the game, and FAU was on its way to its first super regional.
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