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PLEASE NOTE:

We do NOT have the resources to assist with genealogical research.

For GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH please contact:
 
*UTEP Special Collections Dept

* El Paso County Historical Society

*El Paso Public Library Border Heritage Center

For GENERAL RESEARCH  assistance contact Rachel Murphree at murphree@
elp.rr.com
 
For REPRINTS of Borderlands issues please contact Ruth Vise at  rvise@
epcc.edu.

Sid and Andy Cohen, El Paso Baseball greats

Summary:
 

From our Borderlands article: The Cohen "brothers started playing baseball in El Paso in 1922 at the Rio Grande Park and later both played baseball in the Major Leagues. Andy Cohen was a second baseman for the New York Giants, and Sid was a pitcher for several different teams in the American League. Sid Cohen was last pitcher to strike out Babe Ruth. After playing for the Majors, the brothers returned to El Paso to work for the El Paso organization."  

From JewsinSports.org:  "Andy Cohen: The New York Giant second baseman who, in 1928, inspired the poem "Cohen At the Bat." He is best known as one of several Jewish ballplayers the New York Giants tried to make into star attractions, in an effort to tap into the New York Jewish community. Since Rogers Hornsby, the best hitting second baseman in history, was traded to make room for Cohen, Andy suffered by unfair comparison. His brother Syd Cohen pitched briefly in the major leagues, and memorably in the Mexican League.

Borderlands Sources

Handbook of Texas Online

Library Catalogs

Books on Reserve (list of standard books)

  • El Paso Chronicles p. 275 -- both brothers die in 1988. Syd:  4/9/88 and Andy: 10/29/1988

Password (Journal of EP Historical Society) and its Archives

  •  No articles on these brothers.  I also searched baseball which might provide background information to flesh out a future article on the brothers. The roman numeral is the volume number, the arabic number following is the page. 
     
    • Baseball in Early El Paso, : xxix, 188, photo (c. 1881) xxxi, 100; (1887), xxxii, 141, 191
    • El Paso Browns (baseball team), : xxx, 129
       
  • There is a photo that shows Andy Cohen 043-1997-004P5  The thumbnail doesn't show online, but the photo is in the EPCHS archive.

Google Books

Google Searches

As always with internet searches, be sure to question the authenticity of information.

EPPL: Border Heritage Center

There is bound to be an envelope in the vertical file at the Border Heritage Center. You can call and ask them before you go down (915-543-5440).  This is a collection of photocopied articles on a person or topic.  You can also see if there is an envelope on Baseball in El Paso in the files.

In addition, check the newspaper card catalog, under Baseball and also under Cohen, to see other articles available.  You would then have to search for the article in the microfilms, ask at the reference desk around the corner from the readers for help. 

UTEP Library's Special Collections Department

  •  I didn't find anything.

UTEP's Institute of Oral History

  • Syd and Andy Cohen interview  45 minutes with these "Former UTEP Baseball Coaches) Experiences playing pro baseball; Syd played under the name of Pablo Garcia in Mexico; coaching experiences at UTEP."
     

Local and National Newspapers

  • Use dates found in El Paso Chronicles to search for obituaries.  Try local and national papers (since they played for the major leagues)
  • NY Times ANDY COHEN KEEPS HIS NAME Jul 22, 1928. p. 106

Library of Congress Memory Project

page compiled by Rachel Murphree
Last updated 09/18/2008

Borderlands is published annually by El Paso Community College, P.O. Box 20500, El Paso, TX 79998.

It is a collection of student written articles on the history and culture of the El Paso, Juárez, Las Cruces border region, comprising the states of Texas, New Mexico, and the Mexican state of Chihuahua.   This site was created with seed money from the Integrating Technical Contexts into Academic Courses (ITAC) Project, and maintained by the Northwest Community Library staff.  Funds for the program were provided by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board under the auspices of the federal Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998.  

Ruth Vise, Borderlands Director, EPCC
Monica Wong, Project Coordinator, Head Librarian,  Northwest Community Library,  EPCC
Joe Old, Technical Consultant, ITAC Project
Mary Sarber,  Lorely Ambriz, and Library Staff.
Rachel Murphree, web weaver

Copyright  2001-2008 El Paso Community College