Andy Cooper
Andrew Lewis Cooper (April 24, 1898 – June 3, 1941), nicknamed "Lefty", was an American professional baseball pitcher and player-manager in the Negro leagues. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006. An alumnus of Paul Quinn College, Cooper played nine seasons for the Detroit Stars and ten seasons for the Kansas City Monarchs, and briefly played for the Chicago American Giants. The Texan was 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall and weighed 220 pounds (100 kg; 16 st).
In defiance of a threatened five-year Negro league ban for contract jumping, Cooper joined a 1927 barnstorming team that toured Hawaii and Japan. He spent most of his later career with the Monarchs. Cooper is the Negro league record holder for career saves. In a 1937 playoff game, he pitched 17 innings. Cooper served as manager or player-manager for the Monarchs from 1937 to 1940, leading the team to the pennant three times during those four seasons.
Due to the incomplete nature of Negro league baseball statistics, and the fact that Major League Baseball did not officially recognize the save statistic until the 1969 season, many Negro league pitchers are likely undercredited for the number of saves they actually recorded. That being said, Cooper is recognized as the "official" Negro league all-time leader in saves with 24. He also is tied for the most saves in a season by a Negro league player, with 6 in 1923; the other Negro league players to record 6 saves in a season were Tom Williams (1924), Army Cooper (1929), and Booker McDaniel (1945).
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