Cooper Bats

[Yankwood]

This may be misplaced as this is not about shipping records, but rather about Cooper bats model numbers. Was Cooper a Canadian version of or a division of Louisville Slugger? The model numbers they used were identical to those which were used by Louisville and unless there was a partnership of some sort, I don't think this would have been allowed. Does anyone out there know anything about this? Thanks, Terry.

[MSpecht]

Hi Terry--

Here is some info I found on Cooper:

"Cooper originally began with a man named Jack Cooper. Mr. Cooper or “the Chief” as he was affectionately called by his employees built his success for 55 years on high performance quality products, great service, strong research and development all combined with his personal integrity and dedication to his employees, suppliers and customers. He was elected to the Canadian Business Hall of Fame in 1989 an honor he truly deserved. With this unique combination Cooper became a well-known, well-respected name in Major League Baseball reaching a height of being the 3rd largest professional bat supplier in the world. Year after year, more and more Major League stars like Tim Raines, Tony Fernandez, Kelly Gruber, Cecil Fielder, Joe Carter and others put their faith in Cooper to deliver.

Cooper’s bat making know-how all started in 1908 in St. Marys, Ontario when the “St Marys Wood Specialty Co. Ltd.” began producing professional wood baseball and softball bats for the Canadian market. In 1933, Jos. Seagrams and Company purchased the St. Marys operation. St Marys was then amalgamated with “Hespeler Wood Specialties Limited” the world’s largest and oldest hockey stick producer and renamed “Hespeler – St Marys Wood Specialties Limited” operating out of Hespeler, Ontario. In 1972, Cooper purchased the Hespeler facilities and eventually the label was changed from St Marys to Cooper.

The baseball name Cooper was sold to another company and in 1996 pro bat production stopped as the plant manager, Ross Huehn and the pro department focused on major growth in sales of the other product being manufactured there, professional hockey sticks."

Mike

[Vintagedeputy]

Mike - does this mean that all Cooper bats are from 1996 and before?