Joe Coleman

Joseph Howard Coleman (February 3, 1947 – July 9, 2025) was an American professional baseball pitcher who played from 1965 to 1982, including 15 seasons in Major League Baseball. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, he attended Natick High School in Natick, Massachusetts.

Coleman pitched for the Washington Senators (1965–70), Detroit Tigers (1971–76), Chicago Cubs (1976), Oakland Athletics (1977–78), Toronto Blue Jays (1978), San Francisco Giants (1979), and Pittsburgh Pirates (1979). Across 484 major league games he compiled a 142–135 win–loss record with a 3.70 earned run average.

His strongest stretch came with Detroit, where he averaged more than 20 wins per season from 1971 to 1973. In 1971 he recorded 236 strikeouts, third best in the American League. He was selected to the American League All-Star team in 1972, and in 1973 he won 23 games, second highest in the American League.

Coleman was the son of former major league pitcher Joe Coleman, who pitched in the majors between 1942 and 1955, and the father of former major league pitcher Casey Coleman. The three are the first three-generation pitchers in major league history. He died on July 9, 2025, at the age of 78.