Recently on the Bay I came across a lot of two 1940 Playball Cardinals. One, Mort Cooper former NL MVP and World Champion, and the other Mike Gonzalez. They were both had for less than the cost of a Mickey D combo meal, at least in California prices-which are way higher than elsewhere, but till a good price for two nearly 80 year old cards. Does any one want to guess who the first Latino MLB Manager was? Well if you guessed Mike Gonzalez of the STL Cardinals you would be correct. The back of Gonzalez has his position crossed out and OF written in, which must have pretty common in the day as I have seen other bloggers show cards with the same notations. I am a stickler for condition-but for this price and the condition I am in. So below are some details on these two players all taken from Wiki.
Morton Cecil Cooper (March 2, 1913 – November 17, 1958) Cooper was born in Atherton, Missouri, and after debuting with the Cardinals in 1938, had a 12–6 record as a 1939 rookie. He was 24–21 over the next two seasons before hitting his stride, helping the team to World Series titles in both 1942 and 1944. At the start of the 1945 season, both Mort and his brother Walker staged contract holdouts, demanding that the Cardinals raise their salaries to $15,000 each.[1] Subsequently, Mort was traded that May to the Boston Braves after only three starts; bothered by longtime elbow problems, he ended the year only 9–4. After a 13–11 season in 1946, he began 1947 at 2–5 and was traded to the New York Giants in June. He was 1–5 for the Giants over the rest of the season, and was released in July 1948 after not pitching all year due to arm trouble. He ended his career with a single 1949 relief appearance for the Chicago Cubs in which he failed to record an out.[2] He retired with a record of 128–75, a 2.97 ERA, 913 strikeouts, and 33 shutouts in 18402⁄3 innings. He was selected to the NL All-Star team four times (1942, 1943, 1945, 1946). He is most famous for winning the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1942.
Miguel Angel González Cordero (September 24, 1890 – February 19, 1977) was a Cuban catcher, coach and interim manager in American Major League Baseball during the first half of the 20th century. Along with Adolfo Luque, González was one of the first Cubans or Latin Americans to have a long off-field career in the U.S. Major Leagues. Born in Havana, González played winter baseball in the Cuban League from 1910 to 1936 and was a long-time manager. He was elected to the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in 1955.[1] González, a right-handed-hitting catcher, made his National League debut with the 1912 Boston Braves, playing only one game.
González returned to the Major Leagues with the Cincinnati Reds sometime in 1914 and went on to play 16 more seasons (1914–21; 1924–29; 1931–32) with the St. Louis Cardinals (in three separate stints), New York Giants and Chicago Cubs, batting .253 in 1,042 games. He appeared in one World Series - 1929 with the Cubs - and was hitless in his only at-bat.
In 1933, he became a coach for the Cardinals' American Association farm club, the Columbus Red Birds, and joined the St. Louis coaching staff in 1934 under manager Frankie Frisch. It was the year of the "Gashouse Gang," the hard-playing Cardinal team that stormed to the NL pennant and a seven-game Fall Classic triumph over the Detroit Tigers. González coached under Frisch until September 14, 1938, when Frisch was fired. González then took the helm for the final 16 games of the season, leading the Cardinals to an 8–8 record. He resumed his coaching role under Ray Blades the following season, but again became the Cards' acting pilot on June 7, 1940, handling the team until June 10, when Blades' permanent successor, Billy Southworth, arrived from Rochester. Overall, González' big-league managing record was nine wins and 13 defeats (.409).
González continued on the Cardinals' coaching lines through 1946. In the bottom of the eighth inning of his final game, the seventh and deciding contest of the 1946 World Series, Gonzalez was coaching at third base when Enos Slaughter raced home from first base on a double by Harry Walker. "Slaughter's Mad Dash" scored the winning run and earned the Cardinals the world championship. Although films taken of the play appear to show González waving Slaughter in, other accounts report that Slaughter ignored the coach's stop sign and took home on his own initiative.
González is credited with contributing a lasting piece of baseball terminology. Asked by the Cardinals to scout a winter league player, González judged that the player was outstanding defensively but a liability as a batter. He wired back a four-word scouting report: "Good field, no hit." That phrase is still in use today.
After the Cuban Revolution brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959, and the ensuing chill in relations between Cuba and the U.S., González remained in Cuba, where he was cut off from his old friends and associates in American baseball. He died in Havana at age 86 in 1977.
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