April 16, 1977 - Brewers 4, Yankees 3
- Sal Maiorana
- Apr 16, 2017
- 2 min read
MILWAUKEE - There have been countless players around Major League Baseball who seemed forever stuck in a rut with one organization, and then blossomed into stars, or at least reliably productive players, once they were granted a change of scenery. Milwaukee first baseman Cecil Cooper, the hero of Milwaukee's latest victory over the Yankees, was one such player.
Cooper came up with the Red Sox, a sixth-round draft choice in 1968 who saw brief time in Boston in 1971 and 1972, and then began to make more regular contributions starting in 1973. However, with Carl Yastrzemski having moved from left field to first base, Cooper was never going to be much more than a designated hitter in Boston, so he was perfectly happy to be traded to Milwaukee on Dec. 6, 1976, for George Scott and Bernie Carbo.
Cooper was immediately plugged into the Brewers lineup as Scott's replacement at first base, and one week into the 1977 season it was clear he was going to thrive in his new surroundings. Sure enough, he went on to play 11 years in Milwaukee, earning five All-Star berths, two Gold gloves, and two American League RBI titles. His final career numbers included a .298 average, seven straight seasons hitting above .300, and 2,192 hits, 241 homers and 1,125 RBI.
Three of those RBI came in this game, a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning off Yankee starter Ken Holtzman that trimmed New York's early 2-0 lead in half, and the other two on his home run in the bottom of the ninth off Sparky Lyle that evened the score at 3-3. Cooper was still in the dugout accepting congratulations when Sal Bando tripled two pitches later, and Bando eventually trotted home with the winning run on Steve Brye's single.
Here's a clip from the 1982 American League Championship Series against the Angels, Cooper delivering the game-winning, series-clinching two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning:
Overshadowing the game was the mini-drama that was brewing over Reggie Jackson’s benching in the previous game. Martin and Jackson met for more than two hours at the team hotel earlier in the day, apparently hashing out what had happened the night before, and Jackson said before this game, in which he contributed an RBI double, “I’m just glad to be here. I don’t know what’s between us.”
It was only the tip of the iceberg for these two men, and when you factored in Thurman Munson and George Steinbrenner, it was becoming almost inevitable that the stew was going to be boiling in the Bronx.
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