Cecil Cooper

The Red Sox trade 1B Cecil Cooper to the Brewers for 1B George Scott and OF Bernie Carbo.

On December 6, 1976 — The Boston Red Sox trade 1B Cecil Cooper to the Brewers for 1B George Scott and OF Bernie Carbo. This ranks as one of the Brew Crew’s best-ever trades.

Scott and Carbo return to Fenway, Scott has a good year in 1977 hitting 33 Homeruns and driving in over 90 runs, but he is out of baseball by 1979. Carbo also had a productive 1977, hitting 15 homeruns and batting .289 in part-time duty. Carbo will be purchased in 1978 by Cleveland and bounce around to several teams before ending his career in 1980 at age 32.

By the time both Carbo and Scott were finished with their careers, Cooper had established himself as a solid every day player, emerged by hitting .352 in 1980, winning a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and finished 5th in MVP voting. From 1977 – 1987 he will lead the league in RBI’s twice, have 3 Top 5 MVP finishes, win Gold Gloves, and hit over 200 homeruns. Cooper will bat .302 for his career and play an outstanding firstbase, he was part of several excellent Milwaukee Brewer teams.