Professional career Walker Cooper

cooper cardinals

a native of atherton, missouri, cooper solid defensive catcher strong hitter, making national league all-star team every year 1942 1950. after being stuck in cardinals talent-rich farm system in late 1930s, broke in team in late 1940 @ age 25 (and reportedly complained umpire beans reardon first pitch saw); broken collarbone limited play 68 games in 1941. on august 30 of year, cooper caught lon warneke s no-hitter. in 1942 batted .281, finishing among national league s top ten players in slugging, doubles , triples st. louis won pennant 2 games; brother mort won valuable player award. batting fifth, hit .286 in world series against defending champion new york yankees, driving in winning run in game 4 , scoring winning run on whitey kurowski s home run in ninth inning of final game 5; picked joe gordon off second base no outs in bottom of ninth inning, team earned first title in 8 years.

in 1943 raised average career-high .318, , third in national league in batting , slugging , fifth in rbi, cardinals repeated league champions; runnerup in valuable player award vote teammate stan musial. in 1943 world series batted .294 clean-up hitter, st. louis lost rematch yankees. in 1944 average dipped .317 cardinals won third straight pennant, facing crosstown st. louis browns in world series; again batting cleanup, hit .318 in series , scored team s first run in final game 6, , cardinals won title. world war ii service in navy led him appear in 4 games in 1945, , before return new york giants purchased contract following salary dispute in january 1946; sale cardinals $175,000 ($2,149,275 today) highest cash-only deal ever time; transactions of joe cronin in 1934 , dizzy dean in 1938 larger deals, involved other players.

cooper enjoyed productive season @ plate in 1947, when hit .305 , compiled career highs in home runs (35), rbi (122), runs (79), hits (157) triples (8) , games (140); giants set new major league record 221 home runs. in season, cooper homered in 6 consecutive games tie record set george kelly in 1924. after leo durocher became giants manager in 1948, began revamping team emphasize speed, , cooper traded cincinnati reds on june 13, 1949 fellow catcher ray mueller after starting year hitting .211. 3 weeks later, on july 6, cooper became catcher in major league history, , 1 of eleven players, have hit 10 or more rbi in single game; 6-for-7, including 3 home runs , 5 runs. year, led national league catchers in assists time in career. in may 1950 traded boston braves, caught vern bickford s no-hitter on august 11 of year. remained braves through 1953 move milwaukee, batting on .300 in first 2 seasons club. cooper holds distinction of being last man come bat @ boston s braves field, flying out brooklyn s andy pafko.

cooper signed pittsburgh pirates before 1954 season let go in may after hitting .200; picked chicago cubs, , hit backup catcher , pinch-hitter through 1955. returned st. louis spend last 2 seasons cardinal, ending career in october 1957. after daughter, sara (miss missouri 1957), married cardinals second baseman don blasingame, noted, s time quit when ve got daughter old enough marry teammate.