Texas Monthly Talks
Cecil Cooper
Astros skipper Cecil Cooper on life in baseball.
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So once you went through that you thought to yourself, “Maybe I want to get back to actual baseball.”
As the farm director, I was on the field a lot—I wouldn’t get into uniform, but I would evaluate my instructors. All of a sudden the drive hit me to get back. Actually, I wanted to learn about the scouting side of the game, because I had never done that, so after three years as farm director I said that I would like to try to scout but wanted to stay close to home [in Texas]. I scouted the Southern region of the United States—I would go and scout the Texas Rangers when we would play there, and I would scout the Astros, and I would go see a couple of the triple-A and double-A teams in the area. I enjoyed it thoroughly. But in the process of all that, I happened to be in Milwaukee to report on what I had seen and done, and they needed a temporary coach.
From there it was a short walk to managing in the minor leagues.
I liked being a coach and being on the bench and being part of a major league team, so I thought to myself, “Why not go manage a little bit and get some of that experience and see where it leads?”
It led to your being recruited to coach for the Astros.
I guess you could say recruited. One of my best friends happened to be Phil Garner. I was the farm director in Milwaukee while he was a manager in Milwaukee.
Was it difficult for you to take over for him once he was let go? It must have been bittersweet to get your shot that way.
It definitely was—no question about it. I learned from him at all levels. He was a tremendous baseball person, with great passion. I still do some of the things that he did.
Did you feel equipped on day one to manage the Astros?
In my mind, yes. Was I? Maybe not. But I thought I was. You have to be confident that you can do a job. There were probably some things that I had never experienced, but I felt capable of handling them.
What’s it like to work for an owner with high expectations? Drayton McLane is no shrinking violet.
He is a great guy to deal with—the most positive guy you ever want to be around. Every time I see him, he’s up, and that helps me. The only thing he wants to do is win.
Is there anything about being in Houston that makes the experience of managing different from what it would be someplace else?
It’s a little more difficult when you’re home. And this is my home—I grew up not far from here. If I was in L.A.—well, I don’t have a lot of family or close friends in that area, so they wouldn’t have to deal with the things that I deal with. Because let’s face it, when the team doesn’t play well, there’s always negative criticism. Everybody is subjected to it. At home my relatives, my friends, and the people I grew up around have to experience it. It’s not so pleasant to hear the things others might say about me.
Let’s talk about the game today versus what it was like when you played. How is it the same and how is it different?
I won’t even say that it’s the same. I think it’s different. Not so much the game itself but the people who play it. I’m not saying that they don’t perform at the same level, but the mentality is different than what it used to be.
What were they like before?
Their focus was more on the game than it is today. Then, it was about doing all the little things. Now it’s about home runs and the numbers.
Are your players as committed to winning as you were yourself back then?
I think they are. We’ve got some pretty good guys in our locker room. We have a lot of throwback, old-school kind of players.
Like who?
Doug Brocail. Totally throwback, old-school. Darin Erstad. Old-school kind of guy.
Would Cecil Cooper the manager have liked to manage Cecil Cooper the player?
Probably not. I was a totally different guy. I didn’t like to talk to anyone. I just wanted to play.
Over seventeen seasons, you had a batting average of nearly .300, 241 home runs, 1,125 RBIs—a solid performance, though everyone has a list of things he wishes had gone differently. Looking back, anything you’d change?
I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I had a great career. I played on All-Star teams—
Five times.
—and I got a chance to play in the World Series twice. Most people don’t get to play in one. As a little country boy from Independence, Texas, I was thrilled by that. The one thing that I didn’t do, that I would have liked to do if I had played some more years, was to have gotten three thousand hits.
You were only about eight hundred away. More than two thousand hits is still pretty remarkable.
Yeah, but three thousand is the benchmark. When you look back on guys who had great careers, that’s what you talk about.
Another undeniable accomplishment is the fact that you’re the first African American manager of the Astros. Given the historically low number of African American managers in baseball, I wonder if this is an issue for you. Do you self-identify as an African American manager or as a manager who happens to be African American?
A manager who happens to be African American. But I don’t really think about it. I know that I have to make sure I do a good job, the best job I can, so that there are more opportunities for other African Americans. I go out and try to be the best representative of this organization that I can be. If people’s lives are improved by it, great.
You mentioned that you were born in Independence. I’m guessing that’s a smaller town than Brenham, where you went to high school.
Smaller than Webb, Mississippi!
Tell me about your family.
There were seven boys and six girls. Our parents were farmers—you know, country folks.
No baseball players in your family other than you?
I had two brothers who played for the Indianapolis Clowns [of the Negro League] in the sixties—traveling, barnstorming, that kind of thing.
I know you played on two state championship teams in high school, but did you start out at an early age thinking you wanted to play pro ball?
No professional career or anything. I never thought of that stuff. I was just playing.
What did you imagine you would do when you graduated?
My plan was to go to college. The big thing when I grew up was to become a teacher. That was the mission.
You did go to college for a little while, didn’t you? To Blinn College and then to Prairie View A&M?
Yes, I did. But I had been drafted out of high school by the Red Sox. I went to school every winter for, I don’t know, five or six years, until it got to the point where baseball ran into late September or October and I couldn’t go anywhere.
Time to make a choice.
At that point I was in the major leagues and things were happening. I just kind of put everything else on the back burner. That was forty years ago.
It’s been a remarkable life.
You say that, but I think it was an ordinary life. I’ve been blessed, and I’m very fortunate, but I still don’t look at it as exciting or wonderful in the way everyone else does.
Anything left that you want to do in the game?
I’d like to participate in a World Series as a manager, and I’d like to win. That’s what I want. When I do that, I can ride off into the sunset.
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