Cecil Cooper's 1987 sitting streak

[Patrick425]

As I'm watching the game today with Cecil Cooper throwing out the first pitch and being interviewing between innings, I was thinking about his final season. I never hear it brought up, but his career with the Brewers did not end well. I remember going into Mearl Harmon's Fan Fair at Southridge in 1987 to buy a Molitor hitting streak tee shirt and on the same rack seeing a Cecil Cooper sitting streak tee shirt. Here is an article that talks about it. I can't imagine a team burning a roster spot like this in today's game.

 

https://shepherdexpress.com/sports/brew-crew-confidential/we-want-coop-brewers-legend-cecil-cooper-ended-brewers-career-bench/

[rickh150]

Remembering some of this vaguely….

Why oh why not even play him the last few games of the year? What was TT thinking? Have a heart, man. Give him a few at bats.

[TURBO]

I have zero memory of this, which is odd...

[anglotiger]

I do. I'd been in the country less than a year, and even I sat in the stands wondering "why doesn't Cooper get on the field" and "how has he not even had an AB since July"?

[Outlander]

As I'm watching the game today with Cecil Cooper throwing out the first pitch and being interviewing between innings, I was thinking about his final season. I never hear it brought up, but his career with the Brewers did not end well. I remember going into Mearl Harmon's Fan Fair at Southridge in 1987 to buy a Molitor hitting streak tee shirt and on the same rack seeing a Cecil Cooper sitting streak tee shirt. Here is an article that talks about it. I can't imagine a team burning a roster spot like this in today's game.

 

https://shepherdexpress.com/sports/brew-crew-confidential/we-want-coop-brewers-legend-cecil-cooper-ended-brewers-career-bench/

Definitely remember this even though I was very young. Was so odd always seeing him in the dugout but he never played after the All Star break. Interesting you bring him up when the main reason for it was the cheapness of the guy you have as an avatar. Can only imagine the outrage of wasting a 26 man spot today on say Bradley but never playing him.

[homer]

Remembering some of this vaguely….

Why oh why not even play him the last few games of the year? What was TT thinking? Have a heart, man. Give him a few at bats.

 

I seem to recall they wanted to put him in there in the last series but he refused. Crowd would call for him in late innings.

 

edit: which, if you actually read the article, is contained in the last paragraph

[sveumrules]

Was pretty young at the time, but also vaguely remember this whole situation & being confused about why Coop just kind of stopped playing out of nowhere.

 

What I remember more clearly was my first trip to County Stadium in 1986. Was down with the scrum of other kids along the first base line trying to get autographs & Cecil was getting some warm up throws in. Yelled out, "Hey Coop!!" & much to my surprise he responded gruffly, "what you want kid?" I couldn't believe it, "Will you please sign my baseball?" I asked. "after i warm up" was the curt reply. Coop finished his throwing a couple minutes later & he walked straight into the dugout.

[SoCalBrewfan]

I remember this, I feel like the Milwaukee paper ran a little blurb every day with the number of days since Coop had played. Cooper was one of my favorite players and though I was not really a kid anymore by '87, it still struck me as disrespectful to one of the all-time great Brewers and I had a young person's righteous indignation at the whole scene. I don't know that I knew about the money issue, that would only have made me angrier.

 

(I got in the habit of reading the JS sports section in my high school library; we were in western WI and Twins/Vikings news annoyed me so this was my fix. The high school library had a week's worth of paper issues of the JS and the Wisconsin State Journal...crazy to think nowadays. I did so but less frequently in the college library and then when JSOnline came around, that was a natural transition...by that time I was far from Wisconsin. The JSO message boards then eventually gave rise to Brewerfan, which in the beginning was intended to have a level of discourse higher than that at the JSO.)

[xisxisxis]

The paper also reported that week that Cooper’s agent had actually offered to restructure his contract to allow Cooper to move into a front office position while deferring the remaining money owed. The Brewers allegedly turned that down when Cooper refused their request to discount the total money he was due. The Brewers had no comment on the entire situation. “There’s nothing to be gained by Cooper or the ball club commenting,” said Dalton.

Wow. Cooper was willing to help the team out by taking a current commitment and allowing them to push it into the future and over time, but the Brewers wanted a discount on top of that. So this was handled like the person making the decisions was a used car salesman.... Nice way for the team to give the finger to a player and the fans at the same time... I guess when you think your brain-dead daughter is qualified to run the team you may have a judgement issue... Naw, he'll just make it up by extending Molitor...

 

Bud Selig was running the Team.

Harry Dalton was GM.

 

And people wonder why I don't like Selig.... It's hard to say what was Dalton's role in the debacle since this looks like completely a money issue, but he just dropped in my estimation for the way it was handled.

[pitchleague]

Was pretty young at the time, but also vaguely remember this whole situation & being confused about why Coop just kind of stopped playing out of nowhere.

 

What I remember more clearly was my first trip to County Stadium in 1986. Was down with the scrum of other kids along the first base line trying to get autographs & Cecil was getting some warm up throws in. Yelled out, "Hey Coop!!" & much to my surprise he responded gruffly, "what you want kid?" I couldn't believe it, "Will you please sign my baseball?" I asked. "after i warm up" was the curt reply. Coop finished his throwing a couple minutes later & he walked straight into the dugout.

 

 

You should go to a Cecil Cooper autograph session and tell him that story.

[crossface21]

I was only 9 years old in '87 so don't remember it all that much, but it sucks that's how Cooper went out. I do still remember Betts calling out Cooper's name on the PA at County Stadium. Selig definitely was a penny-pincher, but without his passion for baseball in Milwaukee, we wouldn't have a team right now. He got a team back here, but without his efforts-and I don't know if anyone else would have been able to do it because he wanted to keep baseball in Milwaukee so bad-this team would have been gone in the 90's. It's too bad his short-changing of guys like Cooper and Molitor to name a few are a huge part of what define his ownership legacy.

[ecjimg]

I don’t get why his 88 salary would be guaranteed if they cut him during 87 but not after 87. I’ve posted an account of my meeting him at Florida spring training- but I’ll say it again. He went out of his way to say hi to me because I was wearing brewers gear. I was really surprised.

[ecjimg]

I don’t get why his 88 salary would be guaranteed if they cut him during 87 but not after 87. I’ve posted an account of my meeting him at Florida spring training- but I’ll say it again. He went out of his way to say hi to me because I was wearing brewers gear. I was really surprised.

[Sixtofan]

Cecil got a lot nicer as he got older. There are lots of kids from the 1970s and 1980s that can tell stories about him being fairly rude when asked for an autograph.

[PeaveyFury]

And people wonder why I don't like Selig.... It's hard to say what was Dalton's role in the debacle since this looks like completely a money issue, but he just dropped in my estimation for the way it was handled.

 

I think it's fair to honor/be grateful to Selig for bringing the Brewers back to Milwaukee and everything he did for the city in that regard. I think it's also fair to be negative on his term as owner, especially as it became clear that his personal financial resources became increasingly limited as the landscape of baseball & the related expenses exploded.

[Patrick425]

As I'm watching the game today with Cecil Cooper throwing out the first pitch and being interviewing between innings, I was thinking about his final season. I never hear it brought up, but his career with the Brewers did not end well. I remember going into Mearl Harmon's Fan Fair at Southridge in 1987 to buy a Molitor hitting streak tee shirt and on the same rack seeing a Cecil Cooper sitting streak tee shirt. Here is an article that talks about it. I can't imagine a team burning a roster spot like this in today's game.

 

https://shepherdexpress.com/sports/brew-crew-confidential/we-want-coop-brewers-legend-cecil-cooper-ended-brewers-career-bench/

Definitely remember this even though I was very young. Was so odd always seeing him in the dugout but he never played after the All Star break. Interesting you bring him up when the main reason for it was the cheapness of the guy you have as an avatar. Can only imagine the outrage of wasting a 26 man spot today on say Bradley but never playing him.

 

 

The reason he is in my avatar is because without him, there are no Brewers or MLB baseball in Milwaukee. Without him I don't grow up watching and loving the Brewers and being able to go to all the games I went to as a kid, including the World Series. I wouldn't get to share the enjoyment of attending, in person, 15-30 Major League games every year with my wife and son over the last 20-25 years, including the excitement of the post season games. My son and I text and communicate almost on a daily basis regarding the Brewers. We have also been fortunate enough as season seat holders to participate in on-field batting practice at Miller Park/Am Fam field. None of that happens without Bud Selig. Anything negative that he did as owner of the Brewers or commissioner of baseball (I think he was a great commissioner, especially compared to the bozo running baseball today) is completely superseded by the fact that, against all odds, he brought MLB baseball back to Milwaukee. This conversation we are having and this site and message board don't exist without Bud Selig. So I find it interesting, odd, and ironic when Brewer fans rip on him or talk about how much they dislike him.

[CheezWizHed]

Was pretty young at the time, but also vaguely remember this whole situation & being confused about why Coop just kind of stopped playing out of nowhere.

 

What I remember more clearly was my first trip to County Stadium in 1986. Was down with the scrum of other kids along the first base line trying to get autographs & Cecil was getting some warm up throws in. Yelled out, "Hey Coop!!" & much to my surprise he responded gruffly, "what you want kid?" I couldn't believe it, "Will you please sign my baseball?" I asked. "after i warm up" was the curt reply. Coop finished his throwing a couple minutes later & he walked straight into the dugout.

 

 

You should go to a Cecil Cooper autograph session and tell him that story.

 

Gumby game me the exact same response once. Glenn Braggs did too, but then actually returned to sign autographs. As he came, a hord of kids came running. He purposefully reached around a couple to take my card and sign it, since i had asked.

 

I don't really blame the guys because the autograph hounds would drive me nuts if I were them. And is mainly why I stopped seeking autographs.

 

For Coop, I have to admit, 1987 was my first real year in following baseball closely. I didn't know his history, but he had such a bad year, I was glad they stopped playing him. Once I knew his history, it is really too bad. A decent year from Coop and they probably play the Twins in the playoffs that year.