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Wilbur Cooper has many proponents for his case for Cooperstown. The first lefty in National League history to win 200 games, Cooper is the only southpaw outside of Cooperstown with a sub-3.00 ERA and 3,000+ career innings.

His heyday came in the nine seasons from 1916 through 1924 when he won 173 games with a 2.76 ERA. Based on Bill James’ Similarity Scores, three of the five pitchers most similar to Cooper are in the Hall of Fame. They include Rube Marquard, Stan Coveleski, and Don Drysdale.

Thirteen of Cooper’s 15 seasons came with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a National League franchise since 1887. Despite debuting more than a century ago, he remains the team’s all-time leader in wins, complete games, and win probability added (WPA). Among Pirates lefties, Cooper is tops in strikeouts, shutouts, WAR.

In the collection is the government postcard signed by Cooper with a post mark from 1953, 26 years after the conclusion of his playing career.

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A government postcard provides a way for collectors to help authenticate a signature. Autograph hounds would send a postcard to the player at his home address.

The player would then sign the card and place it in the mail where it would then be postmarked with the date and city from where it was mailed.

Shown here is the canceled postmark of the Wilbur Cooper GPC. Notice the Pittsburgh postmark and the date of January 10, 1953. While that itself does not guarantee the signature’s authenticity, it it consistent with where he lived at that time. Vintage GPCs are highly desirable because they give both the date and place in which the signature originated.

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On the short list of greatest Pirates pitchers ever Wilbur Cooper played alongside Honus Wagner for 6 of his 15 seasons. The hurler had great admiration for Wagner. The Flying Dutchman was one of five men in the inaugural class at Cooperstown, joining Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, and Babe Ruth in 1936.

Shown here are Cooper’s responses to three questions. The first is about his big league thrill, the other two regard who he considers the greatest players.

“My greatest thrill was becoming a major leaguer,” Cooper writes on this index card. “Won first game 8-0.”

A quick look at his 1912 game logs reveals Cooper is actually referring to his first start and second career appearance. In the September 6th contest, Cooper scattered 9 hits. He walked two and struck out three in the complete-game shutout.

When it comes to the most skilled teammate and opponent, the left-hander turned to Cooperstown’s original induction class.

“Greatest player to play with, Honus Wagner = shortstop. Greatest player to play against, Babe Ruth.”

Some feel Cooper himself has a case for the Hall.

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Though they debuted more than a century ago, Wilbur Cooper and Babe Adams remain among the greatest pitchers in Pirates history. Teammates from 1912-1924, the duo combined for 396 wins in Pittsburgh.

Adams threw right-handed and batted from the left side. Cooper was a southpaw yet batted righty. Together they provided a potent left-right tandem.

A quick glance at the franchise leaderboard shows the men prominently represented. Each pitcher remains in Pittsburgh’s top 6 in games, innings, starts, wins, shutouts, complete games, shutouts, and pitchers’ WAR.

Adams is the winningest right-hander in Pirates history and second overall to the southpaw Cooper. The top two spots in pitchers’ WAR go to Adams (50.5) and Cooper (48.1) as well. It’s the lety Cooper who leads the franchise in complete games (263) while Adams tops the list in shutouts (44).

The two men had fine careers. Cooper is the first National League lefty to win 200 games. He remains the only southpaw outside of Cooperstown to log 3,000 innings with a sub-3.00 ERA.

Adams is one of baseball’s greatest control-artists. He led the league in walks per 9 innings pitched four straight seasons. To illustrate his stinginess in giving up free passes, one must look to Greg Maddux. The 355-game winner would have to pitch 217 more 9-inning games without a walk to lower his BB/9 rate to the same level as Adams.

Despite their greatness, Cooper and Adams are mostly forgotten today, even in Pittsburgh.

In the collection is an index card signed by the Pirates all-time WAR leader for pitchers. For more on Babe Adams, click here.