Joe Brake and wife Mary Pat always came into the press box bearing gifts before every Lehigh Valley IronPigs home game at Coca-Cola Park.
The cooler there was stocked with Coke, Sprite and water, but the Brakes knew certain media members preferred other Coca-Cola products so they delivered them with smiles.
Joe Brake was general manager of Abarta Coca-Cola’s Lehigh Valley location from 1994 to 2019, and helped orchestrate the naming rights for Coca-Cola Park, home of the IronPigs baseball franchise since 2008.
He passed away Wednesday after a battle with cancer. He was 72.
“Joe was as much a fixture of Coca-Cola Park as the scoreboard Coke bottle itself for many, many years,” IronPigs president and general manager Kurt Landes said. “I know how proud he was of the ballpark and everyone who visited or supported the IronPigs.”
The Brakes lived in Perkasie before moving to the South after Joe’s retirement where their children and grandchildren live. They spent the last three years in Senoia, Ga., south of Atlanta.
They opened their Perkasie doors to former IronPigs, including Rich Thompson, one of the longest-tenured and popular players. They have known 2026 IronPigs and Phillies pitcher Lou Trivino since the 35-year-old was in sixth grade.
They talked to everyone who approached them at Coca-Cola Park. They loved baseball and relished having a beautiful, professional ballpark in the Lehigh Valley.
“Joe was jovial, friendly, outgoing, one of the best for everyone,” his wife of nearly 45 years said. “He had a big, booming voice who made sure everyone had what they needed. He loved baseball. He loved the Lehigh Valley.”
There perhaps was a higher power working with the timing of Brake’s passing, nearly two months after Coca-Cola Park’s naming rights were changed to Jefferson Park. He’ll never have to see a game played there under any other name.
“He understood from the very beginning what having an affiliated baseball team in the region would mean to our entire community and was one of the first to pledge his support,” Landes said. “A family-man at heart and a gentle giant, Joe always represented class and integrity.”
Brake grew up in Salesianum, Del. He played baseball, basketball and football in high school before attending the University of Delaware, where he earned an accounting degree.
He was not fond of an office job, so Brake drove a Pepsi truck before moving his way up the chain of command. That decision led to him meeting Mary Pat.
“I was in between jobs and a driver for L’eggs pantyhose,” Mary Pat recalled. “I took his Pepsi parking spot. He was not happy about it.
“Then I started seeing him everywhere after that.”
Brake eventually became the general manager of the Coca-Cola locations in the Lehigh Valley and in Coatesville. It was two decades ago in his Bethlehem office where he made the biggest decision of his career.
“He would look over [at where the stadium was being built],” Mary Pat recalled, “and he said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to look out at Pepsi Park.’”
Brake’s diligence and perseverance paid off with Coca-Cola’s naming rights since the stadium opened in March 2008. It has been home to the most-attended baseball games in all of the minor leagues since it opened.
The Brakes shared many fond memories at Coca-Cola Park since affiliated baseball returned to the Lehigh Valley for the first time in decades.
From the parent club, the Philadelphia Phillies, playing an exhibition games there to debut the stadium to relationships with the fans, to the late Marty Ondrovic, a long-time local umpire who passed away last year at age 92; photographer Cheryl Pursell, the Nacci family, whose printing business was an IronPigs founding sponsor; his grandchildren throwing out the first pitch and himself singing the national anthem before a game.
His passion for baseball was personified by the summer former IronPigs player and coach Greg Brodzinski lived with the Brakes.
“Greg would come home from the [IronPigs] game and the two of them would watch the Phillies game and talk strategy,” Mary Pat said.
“I was a baseball fan. When I met him, I became more of a baseball fan. His kids played baseball and softball. He was an umpire. He was a big, quiet man who lived a happy, enjoyable life.”
Mary Pat plans to have a celebration of Joe’s life in the spring of 2027 in Perkasie, where she and her family, including son Dan, a 50-year-old minister in Pensacola, Fla.; and daughter Kelly, a 40-year-old Chick-Fil-A employee in Georgia; hope to reconnect with many of those they met through baseball at Coca-Cola Park.
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com