I think it's only fitting that I forgot about Cecil Cooper when it
came to my "Traded" sub-set, considering he's an almost forgotten man
even though he was just tremendous for a good chunk of his career.
So today I have Cooper as the next card in the on-going traded set, take a look at my design:
I found a decent image of Cooper in action, perfect for my
horizontal format for the series, and a nice contrast to the clean
template of the 1977 set.
Cooper was traded to the Brewers in December of 1976 for Bernie
Carbo and George Scott, and immediately became a star, putting together
seven straight seasons of a .300 batting average or higher, with a high
of .352 in what is pretty much a forgotten incredible
season in 1980 (thanks to George Brett), when he also led the American League in runs batted in with 122 while collecting 219 hits, 33 doubles
and 25 homers.
The five-time all-star had three 200+ hit seasons, four 100+ RBI
seasons, five 20+ homer seasons and even took home two Gold Gloves for
his defensive work.
Between 1980-1983 he finished in the top-10 for Most Valuable Player, and also won three straight Silver Slugger Awards.
By the time he retired after the 1987 season, he finished with over
2000 hits, 1000 runs scored, 400 doubles, 240 homers and 1100 RBI's
with just under a .300 batting average (.298).
What's astonishing to me is that when he became eligible for the
Hall of Fame, he didn't get a single freaking vote! None! Yet guys like
Bill Campbell, Andre Thornton and Davey Lopes got some support.
Just incredible to me…
