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Who'd the Yanks get for Willie McGee?

The same player(s) they got for Fred McGriff. I believe the name is usually No Name. Come to think of it, that's also who they got, way back when, for a fellow who came back to haunt them in the 1957 World Series - Lew Burdette.

And what on earth possessed the San Diego Padres to take the then-troublesome Garry Templeton off the St. Louis Cardinals' hands in exchange for a kid named Ozzie Smith? (Templeton got his act together in San Diego and was useful enough for them for awhile, but he was sure as hell no Wizard...)

Actually, I have to amend one comment - the Yankees didn't exactly get a no name for Lew Burdette. Burdette was a kind-of throw in in a deal by which the Boston Braves sent the Yankees Johnny Sain (as in, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain") for $50,000 and Burdette, then a Yankee prospect. Sain put some useful time in with the Bombers (he was pennant insurance in that 1951 deal) and later became a respected pitching coach. (Respected by his players, that is - Sain was one of those coaches whose nasty habit of telling it straight didn't sit well with baseball's old-time baronage.) But I still think ridding themselves of Burdette was a dumb move.

My favourite Lew Burdette story: Burdette ended up the winning pitcher in Harvey Haddix's famous 12-inning perfect game which the Braves broke up in the 13th: Felix Mantilla started it by reaching on an error, then a sacrifice and a walk to Henry Aaron set the table for Joe Adcock to hit a huge home run - that got nullified into a 1-0 Braves win, after Aaron did his own version of Merkle's Boner, heading for the clubhouse before the circuit was completed, meaning Adcock technically passed him on the bases. Both Haddix and Burdette went the distance. The following spring, Burdette held out for a raise on these grounds: "He (Haddix) pitched the greatest game of all time and he still couldn't beat me, so I must be the greatest pitcher of all time."

Interestingly enough, a year later Burdette himself would pitch a no-hitter facing only the minimum 27 against the Philadelphia Phillies. It wasn't a perfect game, alas: Burdette hit the leadoff man with a pitch, but then he was out on a double play. Burdette also scored the game's only run.

Jay Johnstone, who came up with the Angels as Burdette was winding down his career with them, has described how Burdette most liked to load up the ball - yes, Burdette did throw the wet one (and more power to him: I'm all in favour of the spitter): Burdette chewed a little tobacco and would spit onto the pitcher's mound dirt until he had little mud puddles near his feet. Burdette was a notorious fidgeter as it was, but according to Johnstone, Burdette's fidget included periodically bending over to adjust his shoelace, and it was then that he'd get a little of his toxic waste into his fingers. "You'd see that stuff flying off the ball, and you'd be walking back to the dugout needing a clean shirt," Johnstone has said. "That was the trouble - you'd be walking back to the dugout." Bo Belinsky also once said Burdette taught him the spitter explicitly.