Newport Native World Series Champ

As the Texas Rangers celebrated their very first World Series championship in franchise history Wednesday night, a man from Newport was part of that celebration. 25 year old Theo Hooper, who is from Newport, is a part of the major league coaching staff for the Texas Rangers. Hooper, who is the son of Newport attorneys Dooner and Lucy Hooper, is a 2016 Cocke County High School graduate and played baseball for the Fighting Cocks. After graduation, Hooper went to the University of Tennessee where he worked on Vols coach Tony Vitello’s staff running video and analytics. After leaving UT, Theo started a career in major league baseball in analytics, which has become a big part of most MLB franchises. He is currently on the staff of Bruce Bochy, manager of the Texas Rangers, as an assistant. Hooper breaks down hitters’ tendencies using analytics and provides that data to pitching coach Mike Maddux to help put together the game plan on how the pitching staff should attack opposing hitters.

Theo was in the dugout Wednesday night and on Chase Field in Arizona for the celebration of the first Rangers’ championship. The Rangers came into the league in 1961 as the Washington Senators. They were an expansion franchise awarded to Washington DC after the original Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis as the Minnesota Twins for the 1961 season. The expansion Senators played 11 seasons in the nations’s capital before moving to Texas and becoming the Rangers for the 1972 season.
Newport native Theo Hooper is now a part of the first championship for that long suffering franchise. He has a world series ring and a world series check in his future. Also in his future, a great career in major league baseball.

Photo courtesy of Andy Chrisman