Scott Cooper: Former Cardinals Infielder, Future Coach?

It’s been 16 years since Scott Cooper wore a St. Louis Cardinals jersey and while he only spent one season wearing the birds on the bat, the graduate is still considered a hometown fan favorite.

Monday night, Cooper coached in the , which featured some of the area’s top graduating talent. Cooper coached the Blue Team to a 6-4 win over the Green Team at Busch Stadium.

Back when he played third base for the Cardinals during the 1995 season, Cooper played in the old Busch Stadium. So it’s easy to understand why he would be sentimental to the Cardinals old digs, but he’s thoroughly impressed with the new stadium, which is currently in its sixth season.

“I’m still a little partial to the old Busch Stadium only because I played there,” Cooper said. “But the new stadium is nice, cozy, and state of the art. It’s nice to come back and get down on the field because it gets the blood flowing for sure. I got down there on the field and I wanted to start playing. It was a lot of fun out there and I’m glad that they invited me.”

After his professional career, Cooper was named the head baseball coach at Fontbonne University in 1999. At Fontbonnne Cooper led the Griffins to a record of 93-85 and an appearance in the 2003 NCAA-III Central Regional Tournament.  He was also named St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference “Coach of the Year” after the Griffins won the regular season conference title.

Cooper currently works for the Cardinals in a variety of capacities, on and off the field.

“I do work for the Cardinals as far as Cardinals camps and clinics and I also do some post game work for Fox Sports Midwest,” Cooper said. “But my main job is that I’m the co-founder of an organization called the St. Louis Gamers. We’ve got 14 teams in the St. Louis area of all different age groups. I also give private lessons down at All-Star Performance, so I’m doing just a lot of baseball instruction right now.”

Could the onetime college coach do it in the pro ranks? That may not be out of the question some day, but for now, Cooper enjoys spending time at home with his wife and two children.

“The Cardinals threw my name into the hat for the Double-A hitting coach’s job and I just couldn’t do it yet,” Cooper said. “Maybe someday I’ll be able to chase that dream down, but for right now I’ve got two little kids. So I don’t want my wife calling me on the phone saying that “your son hit his first home run” and I’m not there to see it.”