Scott Cooper 1992 Pinnacle

On September 11, 2016 I received this card from the Baseball Card Bandit (BCB):

This is what I wrote on Facebook:

I received a belated birthday gift in the mail yesterday from the Baseball Card Bandit. Two-time All Star Scott Cooper. 

A cornerstone of some terrible Red Sox teams, Cooper was the only player deemed worthy of joining the Mid Summer Classic. 

Thanks to you Scott Cooper for giving us a bench mark for true mediocrity!

2019 Notes: I think that when people talk about how crappy those early 1990s Red Sox teams were, Scott Cooper is the shorthanded reference which needs to be said. Like I wrote a few years back, Cooper was a two-time (!!!) All-Star representative from Boston and it was because no one on those teams were very good. 

In both games, he came in for the guy he replaced in Boston; Wade Boggs. 

The Red Sox were pretty bad in 1993, but Cooper probably shouldn't have gone to the ASG. Mo Vaughn had a much better OPS+ (Cooper didn't even crack 100), John Valentin did, Roger Clemens could have made it on his name alone -- even Danny Darwin and Mike Greenwell deserved it more than Cooper. The same players, except for Darwin, all had the same arguments the following year when Cooper inexplicably made it again. 

I suppose there were less really good third basemen in the league than there were first basemen, shortstops, outfielders and starting pitchers. Like a lot of things in life, Cooper was just the right guy at the right place at the right time. Or maybe Cito Gaston -- the World Champion Toronto Blue Jays manager who chose the reserves for the 93 and 94 teams -- really liked him for some reason. 

I don't know. 

But I do know that in the annals of baseball history, there are a lot of bad choices for All Star teams; but there isn't many worse for two-time All Stars. 

After everyone came back from the 1994 strike, Cooper was traded to St. Louis where he lasted with the Cardinals for one year. After the 1995 season he played for a year in Japan with the Seibu Lions and then came home. In 1997, he moved across Missouri and signed with the Royals where he finished his career.