Major League Baseball Player. He was a versatile performer who spent 20 years in the big leagues as a pitcher, outfielder and first baseman for the Boston Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees from 1921 to 1930 and 1935 to 1944. The right-handed thrower and left-handed batter was a pitcher for the Braves during his first nine years, going 32-44 with a 3.72 earned run average and 44 complete games in 76 starts. Bone chips in his elbow forced him to try the outfield, first with Jersey City and Newark In the International League in 1930. Then he was with Toledo in 1931 and Indianapolis for four years before being acquired by the Dodgers. Manager Casey Stengel was impressed enough late in the 1935 season to make Cooney his center fielder in 1936. He hit .282 in 130 games and batted .293 in 1937. Brooklyn traded him with third baseman Joe Stripp, infielder Jim Bucher and pitcher Roy Henshaw on October 4, 1937 to the St. Louis Cardinals for shortstop Leo Durocher. He was released by the Cardinals on April 18, 1938 and signed by the Braves the following day. He batted .271 in 1938 and .274 in 1939. He hit his first big-league homer at the Polo Grounds on Sept. 24, 1939. The next day he repeated the feat, belting his last homer. Cooney batted .318 in 1940, .319 in 1941 and only .207 in 1942. The Braves released him on January 19, 1943, and the Dodgers signed him two days later. He played in seven games with Brooklyn and 10 games for the Yankees in 1944. His hitting totals were .286, 130 doubles and 219 runs batted in. He played two more years in the minor leagues at Toronto and Kansas City. He was a coach with the Braves from 1946 until Aug. 16, 1949, when he was named interim manager replacing Billy Southworth. The Braves went 20-25 under him, but he returned to the Braves' coaching staff in 1950 to 1955. Then he served as pitching coach of the Chicago White Sox from 1957 until his retirement in 1965. He was the son of Chicago Cubs shortstop Jimmy Cooney (1890 to 1892) and the brother of Jimmy E. Cooney, a big leaguer with six major-league clubs from 1917 to 1928.