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       lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
       
       
       ARTICLE VIEW: 
       
       Gary Cooper missed out on an MLB pension by one day. Now, 44 years
       later, a petition is championing for that to be rectified
       
       By Ben Morse, CNN
       
       Updated: 
       
       1:43 PM EDT, Thu April 18, 2024
       
       Source: CNN
       
       Major League Baseball superstar ’s record-setting $700 million deal
       with the Los Angeles Dodgers has been the talk of the baseball world on
       the field since the two-way star agreed to his 10-year contract in
       early December 2023.
       
       At the other end of the income scale is Gary Cooper.
       
       Born in 1956 in Savannah, Georgia, Cooper was drafted in the third
       round of the 1975 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves. Cooper, who played
       as an outfielder, was known for his speed.
       
       “If (Cooper) wasn’t the fastest man in baseball, he was right up
       there with the next guy,” Paul Snyder, longtime scouting director for
       the Atlanta Braves, .
       
       Cooper spent 42 days with the team and on the 43rd day – the
       threshold for earning a mandatory MLB pension – was set to play a
       game before it was canceled due to rain. Before his next appearance,
       though, he was moved down to the minor leagues, never to return.
       
       And so for 44 years, Cooper has stood just one day off earning that
       mandatory league pension.
       
       CNN Sport has learnt that Cooper made two appeals to a committee
       comprising representatives of MLB and the Major League Baseball Players
       Association. Both appeals were rejected under the 43-day rule.
       
       However, the rainout had no impact on the number of days of service as
       the system doesn’t need a game to be played for that day to count.
       
       But now, an online petition seeks to rectify that. Started by Robert
       Jonas, the initiative aims for Cooper – aged 67 and long past his
       playing days – to be given a one-day contract on the Braves’
       coaching staff so he reaches the 43-day minimum to qualify for the MLB
       pension. The petition has received nearly 5,000 signatures.
       
       “Still, Mr. Cooper has no car, no home to call his own, no savings,
       no pension, and struggles just to pay his phone bill every month,”
       Jonas writes at “To help support himself, Mr. Cooper works part-time
       as a landscaper, but lately work has been scarce.”
       
       Jonas that he employed Cooper for a landscaping company he owns.
       
       It wouldn’t be unheard of for Cooper to be granted this request.
       
       In 1968, the Braves signed pitcher Satchel Paige, then in his 60s, to
       the coaching staff to help him get his pension.
       
       Cooper says he’d appreciate any help he could get.
       
       “Whatever they give me, I’ll accept it because it’s been so long,
       you know?” Cooper, who still lives in Savannah, . “So anything’ll
       help.”
       
       Cooper has also received the support of 
       
       “I am asking the to sign 67-year-old Gary Cooper of to a 1 day
       contract to qualify for a pension,” Johnson posted on X, formerly
       known as Twitter.
       
       CNN has contacted the Braves for comment.
       
       are nearly extinct in the US. About half of private sector workers were
       covered by those so-called defined-benefit plans in the mid-1980s, but
       by 2022,  of private sector workers had them.
       
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