#294 Walker Cooper

#294 Walker Cooper
Progress: 1st of this card
300 of 407  73.7% complete
How acquired: $8.25 on eBay
Condition: Fair

This Cooper has some fairly heavy creasing throughout, but nothing that's going to keep me up at night.  It's a nice looking card, with Cooper being another guy that was clearly given extra attention by the artist.  The "Star" treatment if you will.  Cooper was one of the better catcher's in all of major league baseball in the 1940's being named to eight All-Star teams between 1942-50.  I feel pretty good about landing one of these for less than the cost of a movie ticket.

A fact that the back of this card makes mentions of, but doesn't follow up on, is that Walker's brother Mort was also in the majors.  Mort Cooper, a pitcher, played from 1938-49, and was the NL MVP Award winner with the Cardinals in 1942.  He won a league best 22 games, and also led the NL with a 1.78 ERA and 10 shutouts.  Walker was also an All-Star in '42 and finished 11th in MVP voting.  In '43 Mort would again win 20 games and finished 5th in MVP voting.  Walker, apparently tired of playing second fiddle at family gatherings, finished 2nd in '43 MVP voting.  Both would finish in the top 10 in MVP voting again in '44.  The brothers helped the Cardinals win three straight NL Pennants and two World Series.

Stats: 18 seasons, 8x All-Star, 1,341 hits, 173 home runs, .285 avg.

Best Hall of Fame Showing: 14.4% in 1976