If you have been to the Left Field Pavilion at Dodger Stadium any time over the past fifteen seasons, chances are you’ve seen him. His name is Ron Cooper but around Chavez Ravine he is affectionately known as “Deep Left,” and he has been as permanent of a fixture in the LFP as the wooden bleachers themselves.

But last week the now 70-year-old lifelong Dodger fan sent out a text message to a small group of his LFP family (who call themselves “Hooligans” – but in a good way) informing them that he would not be renewing his season seats for the upcoming 2017 season; seats that he has had for 15 consecutive seasons.

Within minutes of Cooper’s text message – seconds, actually – nearly all of his LFP family responded to his shocking message. The retired Columbia Studios sound boom operator and LFP’s senior statesman then eased their pain … a little.

“I will still be coming to many games, but just by picking up tickets on StubHub,” Cooper replied.

Like many LFP regulars, Cooper made a habit of arriving early for nearly every home game over the years hoping to catch a few batting practice home run balls. But this wasn’t always the case for the Chatsworth, California resident.

“In the early days I was sitting over in the main bowl wondering why I wasn’t sitting in the Left Field Pavilion,” Cooper said, during a 2014 interview with ThinkBlueLA. “I would sit there during batting practice and say ‘Gee, I want a home run ball, so why don’t I try to sit somewhere where you can get one?’ So in 2000 I bought a few games out here to see if I’d like it. I brought my son Chris to a few games and said ‘What do you think? Do you want to get season tickets out here?’ and he said ‘Let’s try it,’ so we did it for 2001 and have been out here ever since.”

But getting BP home run balls is one thing. Getting a live-game home run ball (or “gamer,” as they are called) is something entirely different and the dream of every baseball fan on the planet … including Deep Left.

“I caught three in the air on the fly and another that caromed up the stairs that I caught,” Cooper recalls fondly. “That was the money ball (a milestone home run from Miguel Tejada for which Cooper received an autographed bat in exchange for giving the ball back to Tejada). And then I’ve had three on the ground.”

Which one those is the most special to him?

“I gotta say the one I got on Father’s Day [2014] (from Arizona Diamondbacks slugger Paul Goldschmidt) because my son was right next to me,” said Cooper. “That will never be any better, except it was not a Dodger. To have your son right next to you on Father’s Day and the home run comes, that will be tough to beat.”

Cooper missed quite a few games during the 2016 season due to lingering back issues, which most certainly isn’t conducive to the brutally uncomfortable wooden bleachers that have been the staple of the pavilions at Dodger Stadium since it opened on April 10, 1962.

“Because of my age I’d like to see more comfortable seats [in the pavilions],” said Cooper. “I would like to see something a little different out here but I don’t know what. It gets close-quarters out here on the nights that it’s sold out. I don’t have any suggestions, it’s the pavilion and that might be why I love it.

“You know, so often when I sit in other parts of the stadium now, so many people aren’t even paying attention to the game, they’re talking business or texting or one thing or another and it’s so different than the pavilion sometimes,” he added.

Deep Left with his Paul Goldschmidt home run ball. Even though it wasn’t hit by a Dodger, it was special for the then 67-year-old Cooper because he was at the game celebrating Father’s Day with his son Chris. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

The one question most often asked of the LFP legend is how he came to be known as “Deep Left?”

“The first year I was out here in 2001 I wanted a name on my jersey that was different than most,” Cooper said. “I didn’t want my name on it and I didn’t necessarily want a player’s name because they move around so much now. It wasn’t the first year but I think it was sometime in my second year and I’m still trying to figure out the best name. I remember hearing Vin Scully say ‘The ball is hit to deep left field’ but every now and then he’d say “That ball is hit to deep left.’ So after hearing that for many months I thought ‘Deep Left, that’s got a good ring to it’ and maybe someday Vin Scully will say ‘…and that ball is hit to Deep Left’ and I literally would catch it, that’s my dream, that Vin would call it that way.”

But alas, Vin Scully called his final home game at Dodger Stadium on Sunday, September 25, 2016 and has since retired. And even though that game ended on a game-winning, division-clinching walk-off home run by Charlie Culberson to deep left, it was not hit to Deep Left.

Godspeed to you, my friend.