HIGHLAND, Utah — 11-year-old Cooper Murray is a natural athlete. He’s always ready to put his mitt on, hit the field and talk about baseball.
"When he plays, he goes all in. He'll slide, and he's just yelling, and he just loves it. He's a good hitter, he's a good thrower,” said Cooper’s dad, Brady Murray.
Cooper was adopted by Brady and his wife in 2016.
"Coop was abandoned on a street corner in a city of 14 million people in mainland China when he was estimated to be six months old,” Brady recalled. “In 2016, my wife and I felt something in our heart like we needed to adopt... a child with Down syndrome, and we found Cooper and we just felt like, 'That's our son.'”
Since then, Cooper’s always had a knack for baseball. Brady has coached all his teams and continues to be inspired by his son’s drive to grow and develop as a player.
Now the Murrays are on a mission after being invited by Chicago Cubs pitcher Justin Steele to Spring Training, where Cooper was given the chance to throw a pitch. He was offered another chance to show off his skills by throwing the first pitch in a Cubs regular season game.
"The Cubs staff was there and said, 'We've gotta have him come out to Wrigley and do this in Chicago,'” Brady said. “On Memorial Day, we went out to Wrigley and he wowed the crowd.”
After that, the Red Sox also reached out to the Murrays to throw a first pitch. Now their goal is to get into all Major League Baseball stadiums. The purpose is not just for Cooper to continue to wow every crowd, but to raise money for the Murrays' organization, RODS Heroes, so other orphan children with Down syndrome can find loving families — just like Cooper did.
"Coop has a mission to help 30 kids that have Down syndrome to get adopted, so one for every MLB team," Brady said. "The way we do that oftentimes is by raising money. One of the biggest challenges in adoption is the cost of adoption."
With two down, Cooper has 28 more teams to go and hopes his next pitch can be thrown in Truist Park for his favorite team — the Atlanta Braves.
If you want to help Cooper accomplish his dreams and support other kids with Down syndrome, you can learn more by going to rods.org or @teamcoop21 on Instagram.
