A closed door meeting in Spring Training? That's pretty intense.
"I just want to start ripping some people," he said. "You get a little frustrated how we're playing even though it's spring training. I didn't sleep too good, and that's one of the rare times for me. We're going to try to address it today and move forward."
It's not about golf and Disney World for Cooper and the Astros:
"It's about how you play, how you go about your business," he said. "If you lose, you lose, and that's OK. It's how you do it. Body language, the effort, those kinds of things. That's what bothers you more than anything else.
"It shouldn't be happening in spring training. I shouldn't have this frustration level in spring training. You should be having fun, you should be loose and have energy and enjoy what you're doing. You have a chance to play on a major league team and it's a blessing."
Let me tell you what: This makes me happy. This kind of intensity, this kind of accountability? I love it. There wasn't any name naming, but apparently the lolly-gagging has been team-wide.
We didn't come out here to play tiddlywinks, son.
-Hal Smith
