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To: Dales
Bagwell-for-Anderson was a pretty dumb trade. Some other dumb trades I can think of...

Practically every deal between the Kansas City Athletics and the Yankees in the 1950s - Must be nice to have a bona fide major league club as your personal farm team, but that's what you get when you help a business buddy of the Yankee owners buy the Athletics after the Mack family goes busterino. Put it this way: The anonymous Cleveland Indian official who moaned about it wasn't just whistling Dixie Cups when, after the Indians' notorious general manager Trader Frank Lane sent Roger Maris to the A's, he said, "Maris isn't going to the A's. He'll be a Yankee within a year."

Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn: Trader Lane just didn't get it. For the crime of calling Lane on his broken promises and his little white lies concerning contract time, Rocky Colavito got exiled to Detroit for a guy who wasn't that far from devolving into a spare part, and the Cleveland Indians got cashiered as a serious pennant contender for over two decades. Harvey Kuenn was a good ballplayer and an ex-batting titlist, but he was also over his prime and beginning to show the wear of former injuries.

Harry Chiti for himself: You guessed it - this one really happened. The Indians traded him to the Mets for a player to be named later in 1962. The Mets got a good enough look and named Chiti himself as the player to be named later.

Bob Ojeda for Calvin Schiraldi: Why did the Red Sox trade a dearly-needed lefthander who could be effective in Fenway Park for a kid with a live arm but a dead man's attitude? And boy did this trade hit where it hurt, as anyone who remembers Schiraldi's performance in the 1986 World Series could tell you. Ojeda, needless to say, became a critical element in the pitching scenario for those solid Met teams of the late 1980s.

Lee Smith for Calvin Schiraldi and Al Nipper: Frank Robinson said it best about this deal: The Cubs traded a horse and got two ponies. Cub general manager Jim Frey on why they were shopping Smith at the peak of his career: You get tired of hearing him say "motherf---er" everytime you walk into the clubhouse."

Dennis Eckersley for David Wilder, Brian Guinn and Mark Leonette: Boy did the Athletics hose the Cubs in this deal!

Ron Perranoski for Don Zimmer: Tell me the Dodgers weren't horse traders here. No wonder Zimmer grew up to make Boston safe for Bucky (Bleeping) Dent! Perranoski only spent the bulk of the 1960s as the best reliever in the National League with those pitching-rich Dodger teams of the early-to-mid 1960s. Zimmer lasted with the Cubs only long enough to become an Original Met, fall to an 0-for-34 slump in early 1962, then break out of it with a base hit - and get traded immediately to Cincinnati so the Mets, the wags said, could get value for him while he was hot.

Sammy Sosa for George Bell: The White Sox definitely got the short end of this deal. Bell was about to lose his power stroke while Sosa rebounded from an injury-shortened 1992 to do...well, if you don't know I can't explain it. (Put it this way: in three out of four seasons he hits 60 or more homers and doesn't lead his league, but in the fourth of those he hits exactly fifty - and leads his league. Does that say Cubs all over, or what?)

Ivan DeJesus for Ryne Sandberg: Slammin' Sammy wasn't the only time the Cubs got the better end of a lopsided deal. Unless you think that's DeJesus and not the only Ryno whom a FREEP should ever love who's going to Cooperstown, that is...

Marilyn Peterson for Suzanne Kekich: Actually, they were the wives of Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich. The two pitchers had actually swapped their wives. The deal ended up getting nullified in a way not long thereafter, when Marilyn Peterson realised Mike Kekich was no more her type than Fritz was, while Fritz Peterson and Suzanne Kekich ended up marrying - and remain so to this day. Go figure. It's got to rank as the most bizarre deal in Yankee history.
18 posted on 03/22/2002 5:31:30 PM PST by BluesDuke
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To: BluesDuke
Practically every deal between the Kansas City Athletics and the Yankees in the 1950s

Yeah, but those weren't really trades. KC was more like a farm club for NY.

Who'd the Yanks get for Willie McGee?

19 posted on 03/22/2002 8:48:22 PM PST by tallhappy
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