So long, Cecil Celester

Everyone probably knows by now that the Astros fired their manager Cecil Cooper yesterday. It was all over the blogs.

Actually it wasn't all over the blogs. Unless you substitute the name "Goodwin" with the name "Cooper," THEN it was all over the blogs. And depending on who you read, either Cooper stacks up well with Allen & Ginter or Cooper's cardboard is flimsy and he looks too much like that scary 2009 Goudey.

Anyway, the only reason that the news of Cooper's firing struck me is I've always been a fan of Cecil Cooper. I mentioned it when I did a Cardboard Appreciation on this card:

It's the card that made me a fan of Cecil Celester for life.

But Cooper intrigued me for one other reason this year. In the past few months, some bloggers have posted about how much success they have had getting Cooper's autograph. There were glowing reports of Cooper's cooperation and Cooper seemed to go the extra yard by personalizing some of his autographs.

That interested me quite a bit because of something I read a long time ago. It was a team-by-team breakdown of the autographing habits of baseball players at the time, which was in the early 1980s.

Here is what they said about Cecil Cooper. I highlighted it in red:

If you can't read the type, click on the image. But isn't that interesting?

Cooper apparently went from a snappy, uncooperative player -- his smile apparently belied his behavior with fans -- to a responsive, cooperative manager who signed regularly despite having one of the most difficult jobs in baseball. People change or people's situations change, and I guess that's what happened here.

Hope to see you around again, Coop.