Cecil Cooper is mostly known for his work with the Milwaukee Brewers, but the First Baseman had a very healthy career in the Majors beyond what he accomplished in the state of Wisconsin.

Cooper began his Major League run with the Boston Red Sox, where the First Baseman was a star on the rise who helped the Red Sox win the American League Pennant in 1976.  The Red Sox traded him for George Scott, and with all due respect to Scott, it was Milwaukee who won the trade.

With the Brewers, Cooper played 11 seasons and was an All-Star in five of them.  Cooper batted over .300 in his first seven years in Milwaukee, and he would also lead the American League in Doubles twice, RBIs twice, and he had five 20 Home Run campaigns.  From 1980 to 1983, Cooper finished in the top eight in MVP voting and was one of the leaders of a Brewers team that reached the 1982 World Series.

Cooper retired with a .298 Batting Average, 2,192 Hits, 241 Home Runs, and 1,125 Runs Batted In.

One of the better players of the 1970s who seemed to fly perpetually under the radar was Andy Messersmith, who finished in the top five in Cy Young votes three times.

Does the city of San Pedro de Macorís in the Dominican Republic have a formula to create infielders for Major League Baseball?

If they do, one of the best ones they ever gave us is Tony Fernandez.

Fernandez was scouted and signed by the Toronto Blue Jays and made his Major League debut in 1983.  As the Jays improved in the mid-80s, the Dominican Shortstop was one of their stalwarts.  From 1985 to 1988, he would receive MVP votes, showing off strong contact, hitting, and defense.  In all of those four seasons, Fernandez was named a Gold Glove winner, and he would at least bat .280 with 160 Hits.

An All-Star for the Blue Jays three times, he was dealt to the San Diego Padres in a major trade after the 1990 season, and Fernandez was an All-Star for the fourth time in 1992.  The Shortstop again was a Blue Jay in 1993, when he was part of their first World Series Title.

Following that collection of the ring, he was a Cincinnati Red, New York Yankee, and Cleveland Indian before going back north as a Blue Jay and going to his fifth and last All-Star Game.  Fernandez went to Milwaukee and returned to Toronto before retiring in 2001.

The Infielder compiled 2,276 Hits, 246 Stolen Bases, and a .288 Batting Average.

While we never thought Virgil Trucks' nickname of "Fire" was that creative, we did believe that the Alabaman was a pretty good Pitcher in his day.

Trucks Strikeout numbers may not be that impressive today, but for his day, he was one of the most capable flamethrowers in Baseball.  The righthander played the first two-thirds of his career with the Detroit Tigers.  In Detroit, he had five seasons in which he posted at least 14 wins and was an All-Star in 1949, when he went 19-11 and led the American League in Strikeouts with 153.  Trucks helped Detroit win the 1945 win the World Series, winning his lone start in their championship over the Chicago Cubs.

Trucks was traded from Detroit before the 1952 season to the St. Louis Browns, where he had a strange season, as St. Louis traded him in June that year to the Chicago White Sox.  In his combined year in St. Louis and Chicago, he went 20-10 with a 2.93 ERA and a fifth-place MVP finish, his highest ever.  Trucks was an All-Star again in 1954, with a 19-12 record and a 2.79 ERA.  He played until 1958 with another stop in Detroit, Kansas City, and the New York Yankees.

He would leave the game with a record of 177-135 and 1,534 Strikeouts.  Trucks was in the top ten in SO/9 and SO/BB ten times, and after he left the game, he lived a long life, finally passing in 2013 at the ripe old age of 95.   That sounds like a great life to us!