By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

           Coot Veal’s last Major League Baseball game was in 1963, as a six-year MLB career came to an end.

          That career included being the first Washington Senator – the team had been officially known as the Nationals - to hit in old Griffith Stadium. After John F. Kennedy threw out the first pitch.

                 He went to Auburn, and was a basketball teammate of Vince was a basketball teammate of Vince Dooley. He left Auburn, signed to play pro baseball, and then played a season of basketball at Mercer.

          After more than a decade of professional baseball, Veal settled back in Central Georgia with wife Mary Frank. They had four children, and the last name “Veal” still carries weight in the area nearly six decades after his uniform was put away.

          And the last time his face graced a baseball card.

          Veal, active in the church and on the golf course, died Sunday surrounded by family, of natural causes after battling neuropathy for the past few years.

          He was  88.

          Services are Saturday at Haddock Baptist Church at 11 a.m., with the family greeting friends an hour beforehand.

          He was still Coot at the end.

“He was just in a world of pain,” said son Barry Veal, athletics director at Jones County. ““He was alert. He was himself all the way to the end.

“To the end, he battled. I guess he was just ready to see the Lord.”

          The graduate of Lanier is survived of his wife – and high school sweetheart – of 69 years, four children, 15 grandchildren and two great grandchildren, a brother, and many others.

          Coot was more well known than brothers Willie and Donnie. Willie was a four-sport standout at Lanier.

          “He always told me he thought Willie was the best athlete out of all of them,” Barry said. “He signed with the St. Louis Browns for baseball. was the last four-sport star at Lanier.

          Willie, a four-sport letterman at Lanier who graduated in 1947, died in July of 2010 at age 80.

          Donnie went on to a standout basketball coaching career at Mount de Sales, as the Cavs’ first GHSA state baseball championship coach in 1966, and later in basketball at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College from 1997-2000, after starring at Lanier and in baseball and basketball at Mercer, earning spots in the Mount de Sales and Mercer halls, as well as ABAC.

          He lives in Tifton.

          Coot Veal’s life was a full one, from succeeding at multiple sports to being a scratch golfer for a long time to helping out Barry during a two-decade career coaching baseball at Jones County.

Coot Veal’s life was a full one, from succeeding at multiple sports to being a scratch golfer for a long time to helping out Barry during a two-decade career coaching baseball at Jones County.

          “He was out there helping me when I was coaching,” Barry said. “I got a lot of texts in the last day or two from former players, saying how much he helped them. I always told them: ‘if he tells you something different than me, you listen to him.’”

          The Coot Veal athletics tree, as it were, has been around for awhile.

          Oldest son Rick played at Lanier and then Gulf Coast Community College in Florida before moving on from sports.

          Barry followed the family tradition, and was a standout athlete at FPD. His school single-game basketball scoring record at FPD, set in 1981, was finally broken this year by Jordan Jones during the Vikings’ outstanding season. He went on to play baseball at Mercer, sneaking in a basketball season as well.

          Barry went on to a long (21 years) and successful career as Jones County’s head baseball coach, and is in his seventh year as the school’s full-time athletics director, one of the area’s most active in that position. His son Brooks went to Gardner-Webb to play baseball, but stopped to focus on academics and is soon graduating from Georgia.

          Son Brannen lives in St. Simons, where he is director of golf at Sea Island Golf Club. He graduated from Tattnall, and played baseball at Middle Georgia College – then a junior college, which was the national runner-up in 1990 with Veal on the team – and Auburn, and was drafted by the Dodgers, but chose the business world.

          And then golf. He was named Professional of the Year by the Georgia PGA in January.

          His son Harry was is a walk-on linebacker at Auburn in 2019, after graduating from Frederica.

          Daughter Barbie, who lives in Alpharetta, was a trainer while at Mount de Sales.

          Coot and Barry are members of the Macon Sports Hall of Fame, the father joining in 2001 and the son going in 13 years later. Brannen was selected last year, but the ceremony was put on hold, so he’s expected to join them officially this year.

          Veal’s pro baseball career began in 1952 at the age of 19, with Williamsport in the Eastern League. From there? He moved around: Durham, Jamestown, Montgomery, Wilkes-Barre, Augusta (twice), Charleston (twice), Birmingham (twice), Buffalo (twice), Denver, Columbus, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and Syracuse.

          Veal  spent some time in Denver, then home to the American Association’s Denver Bears.

          He made the majors in 1958 with Detroit, where he spent four seasons overall – with a season at Washington and at Pittsburgh in between – and batted .247.

                   Veal played in 247 Major-League games, going back and forth from the majors and minors from 1958-64. His minor-league career average was .243, and .231 in the majors.

          He was a career .965 fielder at shortstop, .976 in the majors.

          “He retired the year I was born,” Barry Veal said. “But they said he could field with anybody.”

          Veal spent more than four decades at Macon Mine and Mill, and was active at Haddock Baptist Church.

          “He was a great father, a great husband,” Barry Veal said. “If you didn’t bring it up, you’d never know he played (pro) ball. But once you got him talking about it …”