He coulda been a contender.
While Jim Riley's seminal book has been the backbone for much of the ensuing coverage of NeL players (and is my absolute go-to resource on the subject), he does tend to assign questionable behaviour to an inordinate number of Negro League players. Some of it is undoubtedly true, some of it is merely a product of the times and circumstances. The stuff those guys went through is something a white middle-class Australian such as myself could never fully - or even
remotely - comprehend. Men have hit the bottle harder under less strenuous conditions. I don't know where I'm going with this, but today's OotS subject is one of those many JR mentions as having not fulfilled his promise and describes him as "having trouble staying in playing condition", whatever that might mean.
The elder brother of fellow NeLer Anthony (not Andy, as JR erroneously claims),
Darltie "Dolly" Cooper was born in Arkadelphia AR in 1902 and arrived on the NeL scene with a bang some two decades later, going 14-4 for the Indy ABCs.
He plateaued a bit after that, but managed a couple more top-notch seasons, particularly in 1927 with the Harrisburg Giants of the ECL, which saw him go a superb 16-7 with a 2.51 ERA (high wins, low ERA for the league). But he only ever won 10 games one other time and generally struggled relative to these highpoints, finishing with a career 71-58 record and 4.20 ERA (109 ERA+) over 13 seasons spent with nine clubs. He only won 13 of those games over his last seven campaigns, including one final go-around in 1940, his first appearance at the pro level since 1934.
Little is known of him after he retired for good other than he died at just 41 in Schenectady NY.
The EL timeline has been a bit kinder to Dolly since he entered the league in the 1969 Draft, taken 24th overall by the Crawfords. He's managed to outdo his IRL self with 17 wins for the ABCs in 1976 and currently sits at age-33 with a 157-132 record and 3.62 ERA (ERA+ 111), good for about 45 rWAR. He has made it to the All-Star Game twice, in 1978 and just recently again this year, in which he is playing for the Mons and enjoying a fine season. At the time of posting, he is 13-5 with a 2.12 ERA and 4.3 rWAR already, putting him on course for a career-best year. One thing he doesn't have yet is a Championship ring, but his KC boys are travelling quite nicely to this point so that might well be on the cards as well.
As always, we'll check back in over the remainder of Dolly's career to see how things play out.