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Gary Cooper missed out on an MLB pension by one day. Now, 44 years later, a petition is championing for that to be rectified

Major League Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani’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, told ESPN’s Andscape.