lit a candle 12h agoNever knew the name until my uncle in Allentop, sorry, Allentown, took me to a game at Coca-Cola Park back in 2009. He told me some Coke exec talked them into putting the name on the whole stadium and it stuck for twenty years. Didn't expect to feel anything reading this today but I do.
Their story
Joe Brake was a Pennsylvania business executive who spent decades running Coca-Cola's bottling operations in the Lehigh Valley, and who became one of the region's best known civic volunteers. He is remembered above all as the man who negotiated the naming rights deal that put the Coca-Cola name on the…
Joe Brake was a Pennsylvania business executive who spent decades running Coca-Cola's bottling operations in the Lehigh Valley, and who became one of the region's best known civic volunteers. He is remembered above all as the man who negotiated the naming rights deal that put the Coca-Cola name on the home ballpark of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in Allentown.
Brake served as vice president and general manager of the Coca-Cola Bottling Companies of Lehigh Valley and Chester County, the business later known as ABARTA Coca-Cola Beverages. When the IronPigs, the Triple-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies, moved into their new Allentown stadium in 2008, it opened as Coca-Cola Park under a naming rights partnership he championed. In March 2015 the team and Coca-Cola of the Lehigh Valley extended the agreement through 2027. Under his leadership the Lehigh Valley plant was also recognised for recycling and water saving initiatives, winning the Wildlands Conservancy Ark Environmental Award.
Outside work, Brake was involved with community, arts and cultural organisations in the Lehigh Valley for more than three decades. He sat on the boards of Lehigh Valley IronPigs Charities and Best Inc., served on the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors and its executive committee, and was a board member of the Bach Choir, the Lehigh Valley Partnership and the Miracle League of the Lehigh Valley. He also served on the executive board of the Boy Scouts of America Minsi Trails Council and chaired fundraisers for the American Lung Association, the Bethlehem Rotary Club, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Good Shepherd Rehabilitation.
His work was recognised with the Priscilla Payne Hurd Award from the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Minsi Trails Council, and in 2016 the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer in the Arts from the ArtsQuest Foundation, presented at the first Linny Awards at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. He and his wife, Mary Pat, lived for many years in Coopersburg and had two children, Dan and Kelly, and five grandchildren. In November 2020 the couple retired to Florida.
The IronPigs announced his death on 12 November 2026, calling him "a phenomenal partner" who "embodied what the Lehigh Valley was about, representing Abarta Coca-Cola with class and dignity." His age and the cause of death were not given in the first reports. His death came months before the ballpark he helped name is due to become Jefferson Park in 2027, ending a partnership of about 20 years.
Biography adapted from WFMZ, Lehigh Valley IronPigs, lehighvalleylive.com, Pennsylvania Beverage Association and Ballpark Digest.
Photos
1by People Forever
that's exactly how my dad explained it to me too, standing in that parking lot