A Tribute to Jim Spooner

Rob Naddelman: Through a Parent’s Eyes

It has been a sad week here at Baseball Factory as we mourn the loss of a dear friend and colleague, Jim Spooner. Jim passed away on Saturday after a long battle with leukemia.

Jim had an amazing baseball mind and was one of the most successful coaches in college baseball history. During his tenure as the Head Coach of the University of West Florida, he amassed 688 victories, which is good for 3rd all time at the NCAA Division II level. He was inducted into the Pensacola Sports Association Hall of Fame in 2006 and earlier this summer the University of West Florida dedicated their baseball field in his name. He has touched the lives of hundreds of players, coaches, and their families.

Jim became involved with Baseball Factory back in 2005 in a variety of roles. He assisted many of our Underclass Exclusive Program players with the college recruiting process, he coached a number of our Under Armour National Tournament Teams, and he served as an instructor at our Team One Showcases. He also was a regular in our booth at the ABCA convention each January.

The thing I will miss most about Jim is his friendship and his remarkable amount of positive energy. I am not sure if I have ever met a person with a more positive attitude and a more enthusiastic approach to how he lived his life. Jim would always give you 100% of his attention and he was genuinely concerned with each and every person he came in contact with. He always made you feel important and would give you an endless amount of time to catch up and learn what was going on in your life. He truly was a remarkable person and a role model for us all.

I will be in attendance at his funeral on Friday with a couple other people from Baseball Factory and I am sure his life will be celebrated by the many, many people he has touched over the years. He will be dearly missed by us all.


Rob Naddelman is the President of Baseball Factory. Naddelman is a former two-time All Ivy League Third Baseman at the University of Pennsylvania, where he competed in a College World Series Regional. He has served as the President of Baseball Factory for the past 13 years, and also is the Executive Director of Baseball Factory's charitable arm The B.A.S.E. - H.I.T. Foundation. Naddelman and Steve Sclafani (CEO) have been featured in Business Week and CNN for their work in building Baseball Factory into the nation's leader in player development and college placement.