2026 National VIP Party Free Signer - Cecil Cooper

The next free signer at the VIP party at this year's National was Cecil Cooper. He was a free signer at two past Nationals that I had been to, 2015 and 2021.

At the past shows, I had gotten Cooper on a 1983 All Star Game ball, 1987 Topps and a 1986 Donruss. He also signed TTM for me, which added a  1976, 1984 and a 1988 Topps. I was running very low on Cooper cards, but found a few that I didn't already have.

Cooper was really nice and commented on my hat. I was glad to get him again. I'm out of his cards now, so if he comes back, I'll need to add some more. 

2021 National Free Signer - Cecil Cooper

Cecil Cooper was another of the free signers who was at the National this year that I had gotten before (several years ago) and also TTM.  So, when it came time to find cards of Cooper, I was pretty dry.

I did find this 1986 Donruss that I had him sign, and because I wasn't able to score any more vouchers for him, it was the only card I was able to get done for him,.

I do like the 1986 Donruss set.  It is known for the bad Jose Canseco mustache rookie card, but it is a nicely designed card.  I was able to get through Cooper's line fairly quickly and move on to the rest of the show.

TTM Success - Cecil Cooper

I had gotten Cecil Cooper's autograph while at the National in Chicago two years ago.  I got a ball signed by him, and Max took care of a 1987 Topps.  Still, I had a ton of Cooper's cards, so I figured I would drop a few in the mail, as well.

This 1976 Topps turned out really nice.  He personalized everything, which is fine by me.

I also added a 1984 and 1988 Topps.  Both of those are nice cards.  If you want to read my bio that I wrote on him two years ago, the link is here.

2015 National Free VIP Signer - Cecil Cooper

One of the coolest baseballs that I got signed at the National was this 1983 All Star Game ball by Cecil Cooper.  I got the ball for something like $15.00 off of Ebay right before I left for the show.  Max and I had spent some time on Skype trying to find specialty baseballs that would cover some of the guys we were going to meet.  I saw this one and jumped on it.  I know it is aged quite a bit and has that big splotch on it, but I believe it adds character to the ball.

Cooper played in the majors from 1971 to 1987 for the Red Sox and Brewers.  He had a much better career than I first thought.  He had 2,192 hits, 241 home runs and a .298 batting average.  He had over 200 hits in 3 seasons and batted .300 or batter in 8 seasons (7 in a row).  He was an All Star 5 times and finished as high as 5th in the AL MVP voting (three times, 1980, 1982 and 1983).

Max got this 1987 Topps signed for me, since we had extra vouchers for Cooper.  I provided some cards and Max got the signatures.  Since I had 1987 Topps cards coming out of my ears, I figured that getting a few signed would be nice.  They do, in fact, look good signed.