Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Unusual Trades in Sports

From Jim Caple's Article "Outside the Box" on ESPN.com. My comments are in italics

FROM LEFT FIELD

In case you missed it, the minor league Calgary Vipers traded pitcher John Odom to the Laredo Broncos for 10 maple bats with a value of $650 (Odom was unable to get into Canada due to a minor but unspecified infraction). Odom appears to have a good attitude about the trade, telling ESPN's First Take, "Hopefully I can turn it into a good thing. I mean I might be able to turn it into a feel-good story. ... It's just one of those funny stories that will go down in history and that I'll be able to tell my kids about." That's the attitude. Odom isn't the only player ever acquired for an unusual price -- including some people who wound up in the Hall of Fame. Some of the more interesting ones:

Ernie Harwell: The Brooklyn Dodgers acquired the broadcaster from the Atlanta Crackers in exchange for catcher Cliff Dapper. (first of all... The Atlanta Crackers?? Second, Ernie should have said when he was leaving "I'm loooong gooooone")

Lefty Grove: Traded by a minor league team for the repair costs of its outfield fence that was knocked down in a storm.

Dave Winfield: The Twins traded him to Cleveland during 1994 strike for a dinner between the GMs if the season did not resume. (Hopefully it was a steak dinner and the Twins GM got desert. Dave Winfield is in the hall of fame

Randy Winn: Tampa Bay traded him to the Mariners for right to sign Lou Piniella as manager.

Harry Chiti: The Mets traded the catcher to Cleveland in 1962 for a player to be named later. The player wound up being Chiti, who went back to the Mets. (He was traded for himself. That is awesome)

Tim Fortugno: Minor league Reno traded him to Stockton for 12 dozen baseballs and $2,500 in 1989.

Johnny Johns: Traded for a 25-pound live turkey. (it was right before thanksgiving!)

Joe Martina: Texas Leaguer traded for two barrels of oysters. (whoever got the oysters was just trying to get lucky if you know what I mean)

Al Michaels: To sign the announcer, NBC traded ABC/Disney the copyright to Disney's old cartoon character, Oswald the Rabbit. (i have never heard of Oswald before but apparently he is huge in Japan. I think it was Disney's comparison to Bugs Bunny)

1 comment:

Dirk Handlebar said...

Where do you find this stuff?

I'd trade you for a half-eaten popsicle and some gum.

Sugarfree gum.