Hooper, Harry B.
Baseball
b. Aug. 24, 1887, Bell Station, CA
d. Dec. 18, 1974
A left-handed hitter who threw right-handed, Hooper was a member of one of the all-time great outfields with the Boston Red Sox. He played right field on a team that had future Hall of Famer Tris Speaker in center and Duffy Lewis in left.
Hooper hoped to be an engineer rather than a professional baseball player. Red Sox owner John Taylor lured him to Boston with an offer of $2,800 a year plus a chance to help design Fenway Park, which was soon to be constructed. However, Hooper found he enjoyed major-league baseball and never did do any engineering work.
He joined the team during the 1909 season and remained with the Red Sox through 1920, then went to the Chicago White Sox for five years, retiring after the 1925 season.
A line drive hitter with speed, Hooper was a fine leadoff man and an exceptional defensive player. In the eighth game of the 1912 World Series against the New York Giants, he fell into the Fenway Park stands after making a leaping catch to rob Larry Doyle of a home run. The Red Sox won the game 3-2 in 10 innings.
Although he hit only 2 home runs during the 1915 season and only 75 in his career, Hooper hit two in the final game of Boston's five-game victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1915 World Series. The first tied the score in the third inning and the second won the game 5-4. He was the first player to hit two home runs in a single World Series game.
He batted .333 and scored 6 runs when Boston beat the Brooklyn Robins in a five-game World Series in 1916, but hit only .200 in the six-game 1918 World Series victory over the Chicago Cubs.
Hooper played one season, 1927, in the Pacific Coast League after leaving the majors and coached baseball at Princeton University in 1931 and 1932, then became postmaster of Capitola, CA, for twenty-five years.
In 2,309 major league games, Hooper had a career average of .281 on 2,466 hits, including 389 doubles, 160 triples, and 75 home runs. He stole 375 bases, scored 1,429 runs, and had 817 RBI.