OPC IMAGE VARIATIONS: 1977 CECIL COOPER

Up on the blog today, we have a look at the image variations for Cecil Cooper's 1977 Topps and OPC cards:

OPC version

Topps version

One of my favorite non-Yankee players as a kid at that time, Cooper found himself traded to the Milwaukee Brewers before the 1977 season, with OPC airbrushing him into a Brewer uniform for their set, while Topps still had him with the Boston Red Sox, the only team he'd suited up for during his career to that point in time.

Not bad an airbrushing job by the OPC folks to be honest, working with a photo that made it a little easier to transform.

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…

NOT REALLY MISSING IN ACTION- 1973 CECIL COOPER

Here’s a card I’ve been meaning to create for a long time, a “not so missing” 1973 Cecil Cooper, one of my favorite players NOT on the New York Yankees as a kid:

Cooper appeared in only 12 games for the Boston Red Sox during the 1972 season, so I get why Topps didn’t include him in their 1973 set, even though he already had his rookie card in the 1972 set along with Carlton Fisk and Mike Garmen.
Over those 12 games in 1972 Cooper hit .235 with four hits over 17 at-bats, driving in two while playing some first base.
Of course, we all know that after a few more partial seasons with the Red Sox where he gave everyone a glimpse of what he could do, he’d hit his stride when he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers on December 6th, 1976 for Bernie Carbo and George Scott.
Between 1977 and 1987, Cooper would become a star, driving in 100+ runs four times, collect over 200 hits three times, hit over .300 seven times and lead the league in RBIs twice, doubles twice and total bases once.
Between 1979 and 1985 he was named to five All-Star teams, win two Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger Wards, and finish in the top-5 in the MVP race three times.
Year in and year out this guy flat out raked, and I was a huge fan, even though he’d get lost in the Milwaukee crowd of Yount, Molitor, Fingers, etc.
By the time he retired, he finished with a career .298 average, with 2192 hits and 1125 RBIs, with 241 homers and 415 doubles over only 1896 games and 7349 at-bats.

TRADED: 1977 CECIL COOPER

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…

DEDICATED "ROOKIE CARDS" #7: 1972 CECIL COOPER

I was always a HUGE fan of Cecil Cooper, and I also always thought he never got the recognition he deserved.

The guy was a machine! And it always seemed he was among the leaders in runs batted in, batting average, doubles and hits.

A while back a had a small series of "dedicated rookie cards" featuring Hall of Fame players who had their first card appearance on a multi-player rookie card during the 1970's.

I wanted to expand on that series with players that never made it to Cooperstown, but had great careers nevertheless.

Funny enough, I already profiled Cooper's rookie card since he shared it with Carlton Fisk.

Check it out:

So with that, allow me to present my 1972 "dedicated rookie card" for Cooper:

Cooper had such a solid 17-year career: over 1000 runs scored, 2000 hits, 400 doubles, 200 homers and 1000 runs batted in to go along with a .298 lifetime average.

But it was his five year stretch from 1979 to 1983 that I really remember.

He topped 200 hits three times, led the American League in doubles twice, runs batted in twice, and topped 100 R.B.I.'s four times.

Cooper also finished in the top-10 in M.V.P. voting four of the five seasons, also garnering all-star selection four times along with two Gold Gloves and three Silver Slugger Awards.

His 1980 season is GROSSLY underrated (thanks in large part to George Brett's amazing year), where he had 219 hits, 25 homers, 122 R.B.I.'s, 17 stolen bases, a league-leading 335 total bases and a .352 batting average!

I guess what hurt him the most as far as "big" career numbers was the fact that he didn't really hit his stride until he was 27, his first year as a Milwaukee Brewer.

Nevertheless, I'll always remember Cooper as a force at the plate as part of that incredible Brewers line-up that also featured Robin Yount, Paul Molitor, Gorman Thomas, Ben Oglivie, and Ted Simmons.

How awesome are those names?