 Batting a collegiate career .409, he was drafted in the seventh round by the Houston Astros in 1986.Coop led the Anchorage (Alaska) Glacier Pilots to a third-place finish in the National Baseball Congress All-American Tournament in Wichita, Kansas in the summer of 1985.

Cooper was 27 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 15, 1991, with the Houston Astros.The majority of his playing time was on the triple A level with teams like the Tucson Toros.