On March 30 in 2001, Mets’ prospect Brian Cole tragically passed away in a car accident. Here’s a post by Joe D. from 2016 remembering the potential star.
So one of my writers sent me a link to Baseball America asking me to check out last week’s Ask BA feature. A reader posed the following question to J.J. Cooper:
“Who are the best prospects such as Grant Desme who never made MLB either by choice, injury, accident or other causes?”
Before I even got to Cooper’s response, I was wondering if he was going to bring up the one prospect that immediately came to my mind. And he did.
“It’s highly likely that Desme would have become a future big leaguer if he had continued to play, and he had the ceiling of an impact regular… Limiting it to players who didn’t make the majors Desme isn’t the best prospect to not play in the big leagues this century, but he’s close. As good as Desme could have been, Mets outfielder Brian Cole had a chance to be a truly special player.”
“In 2000 as a 21-year-old, Cole hit .301/.347/.494 with 19 home runs and 69 stolen bases between high Class A St. Lucie and Double-A Binghamton. He had power, speed, bat control and excellent defense. An exceptional athlete, Cole had turned down a football scholarship to Florida State to play baseball. He wasn’t particularly big (5-foot-9) but he had surprising power. He was a center fielder who could roam from gap to gap.”
Actually, as good as those numbers look consider that he also had 7 triples and 35 doubles that season, a total of 61 extra-base hits in 550 at-bats. Cole also drove in 86 runs while scoring 104 of them. He was named the Mets Minor League Player of the Year, and the buzz was that he could essentially make the jump from Double-A to the Majors in 2001.
But the Mets had no intentions of rushing this prospect as they did with a couple of other top guys before him. Still they invited him to spring training so that Bobby Valentine and his coaches could have a closer look.
I don’t need to remind you how good it felt going into that Spring of 2001. We were coming off that World Series appearance and loss against the Yankees, but things were looking promising. Our 26-year old second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo just had an All Star campaign, batting .324 with 40 doubles, 25 homers, 94 RBI and a .967 OPS. Mike Piazza was coming off a monster season with 38 homers, 113 RBI, a .324 batting average and a 1.012 OPS. And we still had Robin Ventura, Todd Zeile, Al Leiter and Armando Benitez. What could possibly go wrong.
Cole, 22, didn’t fail to impress in big league camp, giving everyone a good look at his rare combination of power and speed. He put together a strong spring training and drew rave reviews from many of the Grapefruit League scouts. But as Spring Training drew to a close and with the Mets Season Opener two days away, tragedy would strike.
On March 30, 2001, after the Mets broke camp and Cole was reassigned to Double-A Binghamton, he and his cousin decided to drive to his parents home in Meridian, Mississippi from St. Lucie.
While trying to avoid hitting a car that swerved into his lane, he lost control of his Ford Explorer, causing it to roll numerous times and he was ejected from the vehicle.
Cole suffered massive injuries to his skull, brain, lungs and upper torso. He reportedly failed to put on his seat belt. His cousin who was wearing his seat belt, survived the horrific crash without any serious injury and was treated and released. Cole was pronounced dead.
However after an investigation and lawsuit filed by the family against Ford, it was determined that Cole did use his seatbelt but sadly it malfunctioned and failed to protect him.
Still, it was a devastating blow to the entire organization and the news shook the franchise to its core.
Former Mets GM Jim Duquette told the Daily News in an interview that he believed Brian Cole was going to be a major-league star. “He probably would have come on the scene right with Jose Reyes in 2003,” Duquette said. “He was a player we were going to build around as an organization.”
Nearly a decade later, Adam Rubin interviewed former Met reliever Heath Bell in 2010. The Padres closer was a teammate of Cole’s in the minors and he remembered telling him that he was going to have a $100 million dollar major-league career.
“I don’t remember him swinging and missing ever,” Bell said. “We used to have conversations. I said, ‘I would never want to face you because I never see you swing and miss.’
“He was one of those guys you wish you saw him play in the big leagues. He was a little guy, but he hit for power. He had speed. And he hit for average.”
In his short time with the Mets, Cole played in 320 games or roughly the equivalent of two seasons. In that span he batted .306 with a .503 slugging percentage and a .850 OPS. He collected 90 doubles, 19 triples and 42 home runs with 193 RBI, 237 runs scored and 135 stolen bases.
His friends, family and teammates said he was your average kid and always happy. He loved football and baseball and enjoyed life. He always addressed Mets coaches and executives as “sir” even when they told him he didn’t have to be so formal.
His talent was undeniable. It makes you wonder how things might have been if he had come up with Jose Reyes and David Wright. Ah, the possibilities…. Such a tragic loss.
