Cecil Cooper

Cecil Cooper was an All-Star, Gold-Glove-winning first baseman who appeared in two World Series with two different teams: 1975 with the Red Sox, and 1982 with the Milwaukee Brewers. Cooper was traded to the Brewers for 'George Boomer Scott', an eight-time Gold Glove-winning first baseman who was the American League home run and runs-batted-in (RBI) champ in 1975. Boomer had started his career with the Red Sox and was a star when the trade was made. It proved unfortunate for the Red Sox as The Boomer had only one good year and one mediocre year left in him and was out of baseball by the end of 1979 while Coop blossomed into one of the best hitters in the A.L. For the Brewers, Coop was selected to five All-Star teams. He one two Gold Gloves (1979 & '80) and lead the league twice in RBI (1980 and 1983, when he tied his good friend 'Jim Rice' of the Red Sox for the RBI crown), and came in second in RBI in 1982 and second in batting average in 1980 (when George Brett's .390 topped his .352 mark). He finished his career with a .298 lifetime batting average with 2,192 hits, 241 home runs and 1,125 RBI, not good enough for election to the Baseball Hall of Fame, but good enough to make him a fondly remembered player for Brewers fans. His post-Red Sox blossoming into a first-rate player also intrigued BoSox fans who wondered "What Might Have Been" if Coop had stayed with the team that had signed him back in 1968 in the 6th round of the 1968. Until the BoSox's win in the 2004 World Series temporarily laid to rest "The Curse of the Bambino", that remained a potent question mark in in Red Sox fans' psyches. In late 2007, Cecil Cooper was made interim manager of the Houston Astros.