Harry Hooper

Early life

Hooper was born on August 24, 1887, in Bell Station, California, the youngest of four children. Hooper showed an affinity for school, especially math, and a teacher helped convince his parents to let him attend high school in Oakland. He graduated from Saint Mary's College of California with an engineering degree.

Baseball career

Hooper began his professional career as a pitcher with the Oakland Commuters in 1907, hitting .301 in 41 games, then moved to the Sacramento Senators, where he hit .344 in 77 games. His manager in Sacramento, Charles Graham, was a scout for the Boston Red Sox and arranged Hooper's signing for a $2,800 contract. Hooper broke into the majors with Boston in 1909, playing 81 games and hitting .282. From 1910 to 1915, he teamed with Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis to form the Golden Outfield.

Religious differences posed a challenge: Speaker, a Protestant, once went a year without speaking to Hooper and Lewis, who were both Catholic. Hooper became known for his likable personality and clutch play, and he invented the "rump-slide" for catching shallow fly balls. In 1910, he led all AL outfielders with 30 assists but also committed a league-high 18 errors. The following year, he hit .311 in 130 games.

Outside baseball

Harry Hooper’s first business venture outside baseball was a peach orchard in Capitola, California. He later bought more orchards in Yuba City and branched into artichokes and pomegranates. Though he claimed a farmer’s draft exemption in 1917, his father or hired foremen did most of the work.

Hooper leaned on others for advice and lost money on an insurance agency, oil drilling, and juice processing, but local property deals kept him solvent. He married Esther Henchy in 1912; their children were John, Harry Jr., and Marie. John played minor league ball in Binghamton under Lefty Gomez.

Later life

After retiring from baseball, Hooper lived in Capitola and opened a real estate firm. He was named player-manager for San Francisco's minor league team in the Pacific Coast League in 1927 and coached baseball at Princeton University for two seasons in the 1930s, leaving when the administration proposed reducing his $5,000 annual salary by 40 percent. He was appointed postmaster in Capitola in 1933, holding the position for 24 years, and was active in civic affairs.

In 1939, he coached Boston's professional indoor baseball league team. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, his son John spearheaded a letter-writing campaign that led to Hooper's Hall of Fame induction in 1971. Hooper died on December 18, 1974, at age 87 in Santa Cruz, California, after surgery for a circulatory issue; he had been the oldest living Hall of Fame member before his death.

Did You Know?

• The Simpsons made a brief visual reference to Hooper in the 1992 episode "Homer at the Bat".