Harry Hooper

Harry Bartholomew Hooper (1887–1974) anchored right field on the Boston Red Sox outfield that won four World Series in the deadball decade, sharing the grass with Tris Speaker and Duffy Lewis in what is generally regarded as the best defensive trio of the era. Born August 24, 1887 in Bell Station, California, he turned professional in 1907 and broke in with Boston in 1909, batting and throwing in opposite directions — left-handed at the plate, right-handed in the field. He stayed in Boston through 1920 before finishing his major-league run with the White Sox in 1925, then played another two seasons in the minors out west. The Red Sox were the team he marked his career by, and he was on the field for the 1912, 1915, 1916, and 1918 championships. A 5'10", 168-pound outfielder with a long, level swing, Hooper appears in our 1909-era holdings on E125 American Caramel Die Cuts. He died December 18, 1974 in Santa Cruz, California, at 87, and was placed in an above-ground crypt in the middle of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cemetery in Aptos, the coastal town where he had spent his postman years. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1971.