Cooper Davis was born for Cooperstown.
The 9-year-old Pennsylvania fourth grader already has his name etched at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, and not just because of his first name — yes, his parents named him after baseball’s shrine, and his middle name of Brock is a tribute to Cardinals Hall of Famer Lou Brock.
He has a signed 1979 Topps baseball card of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Buddy Schultz — “Love the game, from Buddy”— that was chosen in 2019 to be part of the Shoebox Treasures exhibit: The Story of Baseball Cards. That earned him and his parents lifetime passes to Cooperstown and his name as part of the exhibit.
The second exhibit is a jersey that made Cooper an internet sensation last summer. Video taken by his parents on Aug. 24 showed Albert Pujols handing over his road uniform jersey to Cooper during a game between the Cardinals and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. The short clip was priceless, as Cooper’s mouth was agape after the future Hall of Famer slid his jersey across the top of the dugout to the boy.
The Davis family is loaning the uniform to the Hall of Fame, and Cooper will take the three-hour trip with his parents from Hazle Township to Cooperstown when the display is unveiled in a shadow box. It will happen right around the time Cooper turns 10 on April 13.
Thank you so much @PujolsFive Cooper was beyond excited when you gave him your jersey. He wore the jersey out of Wrigley and back to the hotel. We will be back today to cheer on @Cardinals You made a lifetime memory for our family. #Stlcards pic.twitter.com/U1Z8ULOlKs
— Bobby (@BobbySTL1936) August 25, 2022
That game and video was the culmination of quite a summer for Cooper, who also received a signed baseball before the game from Pujols.
First, the story of how Cooper got the jersey.
It was Cooper’s first visit to the Friendly Confines (he has been to 17 MLB stadiums, while his parents have attended games at 30 different venues), and it started off great. The Davis family — Cooper, and his parents, Bobby and Kelly — had seats in the third row behind the Cardinals’ dugout when Cooper got an early treat.
“I got to go to the field,” Cooper said. “They were doing a thing where the first 30 kids in the stadium got to go on the field.”
Cooper’s red Yadier Molina T-shirt caught the eye of St. Louis bench coach Skip Schumaker, who invited him to home plate. Then Cooper tossed the ball to Cardinals first base coach Stubby Clapp, who was hitting ground balls during pregame fielding practice. Then, Cooper received an autographed baseball from Pujols.
“We thought that was the highlight,” Bobby Davis said.
Nope. It gets better.
Bobby said that during the game, some older women in the front row behind the dugout were having a party and kept motioning Cooper to join them. When they left, they invited Cooper to sit in their seats.
Pujols, who went 1-for-4 with a double, popped out to second base for the first out the ninth inning of a game the Cardinals would lose 7-1.
When the game ended two outs later, Pujols walked down the dugout and made eye contact with Cooper. The boy held up a sheet of laminated computer paper made by Kelly, with a question neatly typed in red ink: “Albert, can we swap jerseys? Go Cardinals!!!!”
Pujols did not want Molina’s jersey. But he grinned, nodded and pulled off his own No. 5 jersey and slid it to Cooper.
“God, this is happening,” Bobby can be heard on the video. “Oh, my God. Albert. Thank you, Albert.”
Cooper was going to remove his shirt but did not have to. He now had a jersey that engulfed his 9-year-old body. A dream come true.
Bobby said that the sign had worked before. Cooper held a similar one last summer when the Davis family traveled to Boston’s Fenway Park and Washington’s Nationals Park. That sign was directed toward pitcher Adam Wainwright, as Cooper wondered if the Cardinals’ right-hander would play catch with him.
The 17-year veteran was agreeable and tossed a few at Fenway. And did it again when the Cardinals visited D.C., recognizing his former catch buddy.
Cooper got an autographed baseball from Wainwright, who personalized it at Nationals Park by writing, “Thank you for playing catch with me.”
“This kid is walking good luck charm,” one Twitter user wrote in response to one of Bobby’s tweets.
Bobby admitted that the signs directed toward Pujols and Wainwright “were something new.”
“We had made him a sign that said, ‘This is my 14th ballpark, my 15th ballpark, and so on,” he said. “Then we did the one for Adam and it worked.”
Returning home to Pennsylvania, Bobby was in Cooper’s room, musing about how to display the jersey. A shadow box was a natural thought, but then Bobby had an idea — why not see if the Hall of Fame would have an interest displaying it?
On loan, of course. And with Pujols destined to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2028, it made perfect sense.
“We reached out to the Hall in October and November,” Bobby said.
The uniform caught the interest of John Rawitch, the president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; and John Odell, the facility’s curator of history and research.
“They had to have a committee meeting in December, and after that they said they would love to have it,” Bobby said.
Cooper did not have school on Jan. 26, so he went with his father and dropped off the jersey at the Hall.
“It will be up in two or three weeks,” Bobby said. “It will be exciting to go again.”
Rest assured that Cooper did not bring his new treasure to school for a show-and-tell session.
“No,” he said emphatically.
His favorite player is Molina, although Pujols is second and rising fast.
Baseball is in the Davis family’s DNA. Cooper attended his first baseball game when he was 18 months old in 2014, when he visited Camden Yards in Baltimore. He did go back again when he was 5 to enjoy the experience more fully, Bobby said.
Father and son collect baseball cards together, and Cooper said he was eagerly awaiting the release of the 2023 Topps flagship set, which has a Feb. 15 scheduled release set.
He is hoping that another favorite Cardinal, Nolan Gorman, will appear in the ’23 set.
While Bobby calls the 1973 Topps set his favorite, Cooper leans toward the 1991 Topps set.
He likes vintage cards, too. He has collected 280 cards from the 1952 Topps set, with a few high numbers thrown in for good measure.
“It’s a well-loved set, with punch holes and glue on the backs,” Bobby said.
“Some of the cards have ink pen marks on them with ‘1952’,” Cooper said.
Autographed cards in Cooper’s overall collection include one signed by Lou Brock. The Davis family sent the Cardinals Hall of Famer a photo with Cooper pointing to Brock’s plaque in Cooperstown. He also has an autograph of Brock Davis — he has all names covered — the outfielder who played in the majors in parts of six seasons from 1963 to 1972.
The family plans a trip to Florida this summer to take in games at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg and loanDepot Park in Miami.
This story began with Buddy Schultz, who still holds the NCAA record for most strikeouts in a nine-inning game. The left-hander was a junior at Miami of Ohio when he struck out 26 Wright State batters on April 3, 1971.
It ends with him, too. Schultz, 72, invited the Davis family to Chase Field in Phoenix when the Cardinals visited Phoenix on Sept. 25, 2019.
The family got to sit in the D-backs owners’ seats, Bobby said, noting that Schultz is friends with one of the team’s minority shareholders. That allowed the family to walk on the field after the game, which Arizona won 9-7.
Schultz, who lives in nearby Scottsdale, gave Cooper another copy of the 1979 Topps baseball card to replace the one that Cooper sent to Cooperstown. Schultz also gifted him one of his left-hander’s gloves.
There is no doubt that Cooper and his parents will continue to love the game. Besides, there are more stadiums to visit.
Related Stories:
Notes: Big Sales for Pujols Topps Now Card; Bounty for Judge’s Last Homer; Beckett Grading Discount; NY Show
Albert Pujols Rookie Cards Spike with 700 Homers on Horizon
Notes: Potential $10 Million Cards; Phillies Auction; Pujols’ Nice Gesture; Josh Allen on Autographs; Mark Zuckerberg Rookie, Topps Pristine Gets NFTs
Second Ball with Autographs from 11 Original Hall of Famers Heads To SCP Auctions
Notes: Pujols to Sign at NSCC; Topps Living Set Update; eBay Sales Continue
Notes: Neshek Talks Collecting; HOF’s Preservation Conference; Unopened 1951 Box
19th Century Star Barnes Popular with Collectors
Pujols Market Begins to Sizzle After 500th Homer
