Cecil Cooper Gets His Chance

Always lost in the background of incidents like the Phil Garner firing are the guys that replace the guys that used to be in charge. In general, interim manager's and GMs come from one of two stocks, they're either proven guys that ownership is going to use to steer the ship until a suitable replacement can be found (like Astros' GM Tim Purpura's interim replacement, Tal Smith) or they're new guys hoping to find a permanent job. Cecil Cooper falls into the second category.

Cooper's only been a big league coach for two plus years, but he's been working various organizational jobs and coaching jobs both with the Astros and the Brewers for almost a decade in hopes of getting his shot to manage. And now that it' s here, he's excited about it:

"Like Drayton always says, 'Are you ready to be a champion?' " Cooper said. "Well, I'm ready to be a champion. I've been to the World Series as a player and as a coach, and now I want to try it as a manager. I've gone from a complete spectrum today from being all nervous and upset and disappointed, because in some ways I feel responsible (for the firing of Garner)."

He's certainly in a tough situation. No matter what he does to finish out this season, it's possible whoever the 'Stros hire as a permanent GM is going to want someone other than Cooper to manage the team. Still, this is a big audition for Cooper because if he does well, other teams will notice, even if he doesn't keep the Houston job. He doesn't need to look any further than his old boss to know that there's always going to be jobs open somewhere else (Houston was Garner's third, and probably not last, managerial stop).