Cecil Cooper Mysterious 1987 Season

[Brian26]

I came across this on another forum. I don't remember this when it happened, but this is crazy in hindsight.

Cecil Cooper played his last game in the majors on July 12, 1987 for the Brewers. He didn't get hurt. The Brewers didn't release him or buy out his contract. They didn't trade him. Cooper didn't retire. Simply, the Brewers benched him for the rest of the season.

Also of note, in 1987, major league teams had a 24-man roster instead of 25 players. So, from July 13 until the end of the season, the Brewers played with 23 guys.

Tom Trebelhorn, the manager, claimed that the GM Harry Dalton told him he was going to trade or release Cooper, but it never happened.

Here's a link to a Milwaukee newspaper article in August of '87:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=5056,4200145

I can't imagine anything like this ever happening in today's game.

[chicagowhitesox1]

I checked his splits and although not great he may have been useful at home vs lefthanded pitching, he probably could have been valuable even vs certain pitchers too. That is strange why they would bench him.

I'm kinda curious on this so i'm gonna try and find out.

[russ99]

Originally Posted by Brian26

I came across this on another forum. I don't remember this when it happened, but this is crazy in hindsight.

Cecil Cooper played his last game in the majors on July 12, 1987 for the Brewers. He didn't get hurt. The Brewers didn't release him or buy out his contract. They didn't trade him. Cooper didn't retire. Simply, the Brewers benched him for the rest of the season.

Also of note, in 1987, major league teams had a 24-man roster instead of 25 players. So, from July 13 until the end of the season, the Brewers played with 23 guys.

Tom Trebelhorn, the manager, claimed that the GM Harry Dalton told him he was going to trade or release Cooper, but it never happened.

Here's a link to a Milwaukee newspaper article in August of '87:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?ni...g=5056,4200145

I can't imagine anything like this ever happening in today's game.

Maybe they kept him on the roster for some kind if benefit, where guys need a certain amount of service time to qualify for.

He was a big part of the Brewers in the late 70s and early 80s, so they may have done that as a thanking gesture.

[chicagowhitesox1]

Yeah but they were a good team that year why would they risk a roster spot while in a pennant race. The Tigers did end up beating em by 7 games but I would have to think the race was closer in late July through early September.

[kba]

The White Sox had a player like that in 1975: Jim Essian. He came to the Sox in May as the player-to-be-named-later in an off-season trade that sent Dick Allen to Atlanta. Allen refused to play for the Braves, and they traded him to the Philllies, who sent Essian to the Sox.

Essian spent nine weeks on the Sox major league roster and never played a single game before they finally sent him to the minors. Chuck Tanner just used him as a bullpen catcher and played with 24 men.

[johnny bench]

Paul Molitor had something to do with Cooper's not playing. 1987 was the year Molitor had a 39 game hitting streak which began on the first day he returned from the DL. Trebelhorn installed Molitor as DH upon his return, replacing Cooper, who had been DH. Molly was comfortable at DH and Coop never played again.

It probably didn't help that Cooper came out of spring training unable to play until the 8th game of the season.

Of course, the Milwaukee press was asking questions. Here's Trebelhorn's defense.

[Brian26]

Originally Posted by johnny bench

Here's Trebelhorn's defense.

Google News Archives are awesome. Look at the article above it, which talks about the Twins' Billy Beane winning a game on a base hit off Dan Plesac.

The Cooper story gets crazier. So, it sounds like he refused to enter the game when asked based on what Trebelhorn said. That seems like a breach of contract.