On April 30, 2024, I went to see the Tampa Tarpons play the Dunedin Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida. I had a few cards of the Tarpons players that I was hoping to get signed, including their manager, James Cooper. When I saw Mr. Cooper approaching, I held out my card and asked for an autograph. He stopped, looked at the card in my hand, shook his head, and said, "That's not me."
Now, when I ordered this card, I knew that there were two James Cooper's who were roughly the same age and played around the same time frame. There was a James Cooper who came up in the Yankees organization and spent time playing at their Tampa affiliate, and the other James Cooper came up with the Astros. Not knowing a single thing about James Cooper, I felt the odds were in my favor to get a card of the guy who came up with the Yankees.
Even Google's A.I. search engine, Gemini, mistakes the two James Cooper's.
When Mr. Cooper told me that it wasn't him, I jokingly replied, "Doesn't it make sense that a guy who once played for Tampa would come back to manage them?" He said, "I came from the Astros but I do know the guy." I held out the card again and said, "Want to send it to him?" He laughed and said, "I don't know him like that."
The next day I ordered a card of the James Cooper that I had spoken to.
Having this Yankees card of James Cooper, I decided to see if I could find an address for him to request his autograph. With such a common name, it was challenging but I felt confident with one particular address I found so I sent him my card and the following letter.
19 days later my card came back signed and he included a nice note.
James signed a 2007 Tampa Yankees Team Set card.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=cooper007jam