$Unique_ID{BAS00177} $Pretitle{} $Title{Free Agency and Trades} $Subtitle{} $Author{ Cohen, Eliot} $Subject{Free Agency Trades trade agent trading Seitz McGraw Frazee salary salaries Rickey farm system Yawkey amateur draft} $Log{} Total Baseball: The Game off the Field Trades and Free Agency Eliot Cohen By the late '70s, players were following the lure of the dollars to the highest bidder. Owners lamented the detrimental effects of player movement on fan loyalty and competitive balance, unless, of course, those moves were orchestrated by the clubs via trades. That's the 1870s, folks. Ballplayers have been changing uniforms nearly as long as they've been taking a called third strike. The National Association of Baseball Players, founded in 1858, allowed players to change teams provided they gave sixty days notice. Despite that restriction and that era's patina of "gentlemanly, amateur" competition, paid "ringers" frequently suited up for different clubs, sometimes serving one club in the morning and another in the afternoon. Players changed teams regularly throughout the five-year history of the National Association of Professional Baseball, mainly to accommodate fluctuation in size between nine teams for the 1871 debut, as few as eight for 1873, and 13 in the loop's final season in 1875. The first National League trade on record took place in the middle of the 1879 season as catcher Lew "Blower" Brown moved from Providence to Chicago for the soon-to-be proverbial player to be named later, in this case, shortstop Johnny Peters. Since then, players have been traded for Hall of Famers, has-beens, cash, spite, managers, equipment, announcers, and even themselves. Trades and player sales are part of baseball's lifeblood, in-season acquisitions boosting contenders' hopes and winter moves stoking hot stoves. There's hardly a pennant winner that hasn't used a trade to reach the top or a Hall of Famer who hasn't been peddled in the flesh mart. By the 1890s, a draft system was in place for major league clubs to acquire players from minor league teams. Teams at every level could pluck players from lower classifications for a fixed fee. (Today's minor league draft every December is a remnant of this practice. Players not on a major league 40-man roster after three professional seasons may be selected by clubs at higher levels, but must be retained at the higher level or returned.) It wasn't long before John Brush, then owner of both the Cincinnati Reds and the Indianapolis entry in the Western League, realized that he could use the system to draft players from rival minor league teams for Cincinnati and move them between the clubs at will, creating a farm in Indianapolis where his prospects could grow, and a competitive edge at both outposts. Not until the 1920s, however, did Branch Rickey legitimize the farm system concept; despite opposition from Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and other traditionalists, fearing this return to "Brushism," working agreements with the majors became the key to survival in the bushes. Other changes in the system evolved to address abuses or new situations. In 1903, to prevent clubs from fattening their rosters with stars before the first World Series, representatives of the National League's Pittsburgh entry and the American League's Boston club wrote in a line to their typed agreement prohibiting participation by any player acquired on or after September 1. The rule remains in force today for all postseason play. Waivers and options arose in tandem with farm systems to prevent the best clubs from monopolizing talent. The amateur draft was created in 1965 to end the rich teams' monopoly on the best prospects and allow the worst teams to get the top choices. Trading between leagues required waivers until the initial interleague trading period, limited to four weeks, was declared after the 1959 season and became the principal business of the annual winter meetings in December. Today, waivers are required only for trades from August 1 to the end of the season. Options, which limit the number of times a player can be assigned to a minor league roster, were liberalized in 1985, permitting the Yankees to rev up the infamous Columbus shuttle with their top affiliate. In 1973, players won the right to veto trades, providing they had 10 years in the big leagues, the last five with their present team. Ron Santo, a 14-year fixture at third base for the Cubs, was the first player to exercise his five-and-10 veto power, canceling a deal that would have sent him to the California Angels. The Cubs accommodated his desire to stay in Chicago by shipping him to the White Sox. Free agency, established by arbitrator Peter Seitz's ruling prior to the 1976 season, required further changes in the system of player movement. At first, teams held a re-entry draft to choose which free agents they would offer contracts. From 1981-1984, a compensation draft was held in which teams losing free agents selected a replacement player from a pool. The re-entry draft was abandoned after 1984 as well. Although the new era has given players devices to change address on their own--including the right to demand a trade or freedom after being traded in the middle of a multi-year contract, and the leverage to fill contracts with an array of no-trade clauses and other disincentives to unapproved moves--trades remain the primary vehicle for rapidly improving a team. Mike "King" Kelly became the first big name player to be shipped out of town. After he won the 1886 National League batting title with a .388 average, the pennant winning Chicago White Stockings (who later became the Cubs) sold their star outfielder-catcher to Boston for the outrageous sum of $10,000. That record stood until the New York Giants paid $11,000 to the minor league club in Indianapolis for Hall of Fame lefthander Rube Marquard in 1908. Before farm systems were popularized by Branch Rickey's St. Louis Cardinals in the 1920s and 1930s, ballclubs regularly purchased their players from these independent operators. Occasionally, owners purchased players from themselves. After Christy Mathewson made an inauspicious debut with the Giants in 1900, they sent him back to the Virginia League where the Cincinnati Reds drafted him for $100. Reds' owner John Brush knew he'd soon own a piece of the New York franchise and recognized the potential of Mathewson. So Brush's Reds accepted Hall of Fame pitcher Amos Rusie, who had sat out the previous two seasons in a salary dispute with the Giants, from Brush's future club for Mathewson. Rusie retired after showing an 0-1 record in three 1901 starts for Cincinnati. Mathewson went 1-0 for Cincinnati in 1916, 372-188 for the Giants. Dirty deals were nothing new for a franchise whose early days featured close ties with New York's infamous Tammany Hall Democratic Party machine. The original Mets, New York's American Association entry, won the 1884 championship, but their owner, John Day, happened also to own the Giants--and transferred the Mets' leading pitcher, Tim Keefe, best hitter, Dude Esterbrook, and manager Jim Mutrie to his NL entry. The Mets plummeted to eighth in the nine-team league. Similar ethics helped the 1899 Cleveland Spiders compile the worst record ever, a shameful 20-134. Before the 1899 season, Cleveland's Robison brothers acquired control of the St. Louis Browns, a 39-111 basket case in 1898. Reasoning that the profit potential of St. Louis outweighed that of the mistake by the lake, they transferred the Spiders' entire starting lineup, including outfielder Jesse Burkett, plus Cy Young and Jack Powell, winners of 25 and 24 games respectively for the 1898 Spiders, to St. Louis. Third baseman Lave Cross, a St. Louis regular in 1898, was appointed Cleveland's manager, but 38 games into the season, he was summoned to St. Louis, as was Wee Willy Sudhoff, the Spiders' remaining respectable moundsman. In the mid-1950s, the New York Yankees appeared to have a similar arrangement with the Kansas City Athletics. In fact, before the A's moved to the midwest from Philadelphia, the Yankees had a top farm club in Kansas City for 18 seasons. For the rest of the 1950s, the Yankees and A's acted as if nothing had changed. The Yankees shipped their tired or untried to Kansas City for pennant-drive help in deals that often smacked of lend-lease. After New York acquired Enos Slaughter in 1954, they couldn't find him playing time in 1955, so they shipped him to KC with an end-of-the-line Johnny Sain. Slaughter got about 500 at-bats with the A's before returning to the Yankees for the 1956 stretch run and World Series heroics. Pitching prospect Ralph Terry went to the A's for seasoning in 1957--Billy Martin accompanied Terry to KC as punishment for his role in the Copacabana brawl--and came back two years later, ready to win 76 games for the final phase of the dynasty, including a league-high 23 in 1962. Other key Yankee reinforcements from Kansas City included pitchers Ryne Duren, Bobby Shantz, Art Ditmar, Murry Dickson and Duke Maas, plus outfielders Hector Lopez, lend-leaser Bob Cerv (he hit 38 homers, drove in 104 runs, and batted .305 in 1958, and followed up with a 20, 87, .285 season, so the Yanks decided to get him back), and Roger Maris. KC pried the future two-time MVP from the Indians in June 1958, and shipped him to the Yankees eighteen months later. The most suspicious of the sixteen deals between the clubs over the last half of the quiet decade involved Clete Boyer. The A's signed the bonus-baby third baseman in 1955 and kept him on their roster for the most of the required two seasons, then shipped him to New York with Shantz and Ditmar after the 1956 season for a package of junk. The A's later admitted that they had signed Boyer on the Bombers' behalf. Commissioner Ford Frick ruled that Boyer had to complete his bonus period with the A's prior to going to New York, but otherwise neither party was punished for this shady deal. A similar "birds-of-a-feather deal" appeared to begin in June 1983 when the Orioles shipped catcher Floyd "Sugar Bear" Rayford to the Cardinals for outfielder Tito Landrum. The following March 25, Landrum returned to the Cards for minor league hurler Jose Brito. Five days later, Rayford went back to the Orioles for $50,000, the minor league draft price that Brito would have fetched. The Giants became the dominant team in the National League during the first part of the 20th century, largely thanks to Mathewson and John J. McGraw. The Giants got more than strong leadership when McGraw joined the New York club in July, 1902, after selling his interest in the fledgling American League's Baltimore Orioles. The Little Napoleon's withdrawal from the AL ended a stormy one and a half seasons characterized by suspensions and feuds with the league's patriarch and president, Ban Johnson. For revenge, McGraw conspired with Oriole outfielder Joe Kelley's father-in-law and Andrew Freedman, who owned the Giants in partnership with Brush, to acquire a majority stake in the Orioles. Upon taking control, Freedman released nearly half the Baltimore roster: catcher Roger Bresnahan, pitchers Joe McGinnity and Jack Cronin, first baseman Dan McGann, and outfielders Cy Williams and Kelley, who became manager of the Reds and took Williams with him to Cincinnati. The other four players joined McGraw's Giants. As the new league warred with the senior circuit, players made the best of the opportunity to switch to the highest bidder. Big-name league jumpers included Boston third baseman Jimmy Collins and Philadelphia second baseman Napoleon Lajoie, who both moved from the NL to AL teams in the same city. The Lajoie jump wound up in the courts--so much for "the good old days when all the action was on the field." To circumvent a 1902 temporary restraining order barring Lajoie from playing with any team in Philadelphia except the NL Phillies, Ban Johnson arranged to deal Lajoie to the Cleveland Indians, owned by the league's financial angel, Charles Somers. Six Pittsburgh Pirates, most notably pitcher Jack Chesbro, agreed to become New York Highlanders for the 1903 season, while AL batting champ Big Ed Delahanty was signed by the NL Giants from the Senators. The latter move displeased officials of both leagues, since Delahanty had been property of the NL Phillies prior to jumping to the AL. The leagues made peace after the 1902 season, accepting player jumps prior to the 1902 season and individually deciding the fates of 16 players, including Delahanty, Wee Willie Keeler, Wahoo Sam Crawford, Lajoie, and Christy Mathewson, who had signed with the AL Philadelphia A's after that date. The leagues also drafted a standard player contract that included the reserve clause. For more than 70 years, except for the brief intervention of the Federal League prior to American entry into World War One and the post-World War Two Mexican League, players would have the choice of playing for the team that held their contract, accepting whatever trade that club might make for them, or finding another line of work. The war between the leagues spotlighted baseball's reliance on the golden rule; whoever has the gold, rules. In order to stay afloat, owners of less profitable franchises have been forced to sell their major assets, star players. Twice during his half-century stewardship of the Philadelphia A's, Connie Mack faced this dilemma. In both cases, he chose to keep the franchise. Second baseman Eddie Collins, keystone of the Athletics' $100,000 infield that won three AL flags from 1910 to 1914, was sold to the White Sox following the A's 4-0 loss to the Boston Braves in the 1914 World Series. By the middle of the 1915 season, Mack had sold off pitchers Herb Pennock and Bob Shawkey, shortstop Jack Barry and rightfielder Eddie Murphy from the defending champs. By the opening of the 1918 campaign, the last of the $100,000 infield members, first baseman Stuffy McInnis, had been traded away. Frustration influenced Connie Mack's decision to dismantle the A's. So did the specter of the Federal League, which had already spirited away star pitchers Chief Bender and Eddie Plank. Ban Johnson, seeking to keep his league profitable, influenced Collins' destination. The Chicago Federals had signed Walter Johnson (Washington later signed him back), so President Johnson wanted an AL star in town to balance the Big Train. Similarly, Shoeless Joe Jackson was sold to Chicago by the Cleveland Indians for $30,000 and three bodies in late 1915. Mack invested some of the nearly $200,000 his sales accumulated to purchase minor leaguers and by the late 1920s the A's were competitive again. The lineup boasted future Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove, Al Simmons and Mickey Cochrane and made three straight trips to the Series starting in 1929. But after losing the 1931 Series and falling behind the revitalized Yankees in 1932, Mack began stripping his team. Despite the championships, Mack was losing money in a depression that showed no signs of letting up. Outfielders Al Simmons and Mule Haas were sold to the White Sox with second baseman Jimmy Dykes for $150,000. Before the 1934 season got underway, sale items included pitchers Lefty Grove, Hank McDonald, Rube Walberg, and George Earnshaw, and Hall of Fame catcher Mickey Cochrane. The start of the Federal League may have cost Philadelphia its top stars, but it was the end of the rival league that drove the Red Sox star center fielder Tris Speaker out of Boston. When the rival circuit disbanded before the 1916 season, Red Sox owner Joseph Lannin wanted to cut Speaker's salary back to its pre-Federal League level, from $18,000 to $9,000. Speaker said he'd rather sit than accept that 50 percent cut. Loath to see one of his league's prime gate attractions on the sidelines, President Johnson arranged to deal Speaker to the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Sad Sam Jones, third baseman Fred Thomas and $55,000. Speaker threatened not to report, but Johnson persuaded Lannin to share $10,000 of the purchase price with Speaker. Jones posted 16 of his 229 major league victories for the pennant winning 1918 Sox, but Cleveland got the better of the deal. The Gray Eagle was their signature player for the next decade, leading the AL in batting in 1916, taking over as the Tribe's manager in 1919 and leading them to their first world championship in 1920. If Bostonians were furious over the Speaker trade and glad to see Lannin sell the team after a World Series victory in 1916, the joy was short-lived. New owner Harry Frazee, a theatrical producer specializing in flops, joined Mack as a prolific vendor of talent to the rest of the league. After purchasing several of Mack's A's, the Sox were short of funds even though they won the 1918 World Series, so Frazee sold pitchers Ernie Shore, Dutch Leonard and Carl Mays, plus outfielder Duffy Lewis to the Yankees, netting over $50,000. After the 1919 season, Frazee needed additional cash, so he dispatched Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 plus a $300,000 loan secured by Fenway Park. Although Frazee brazenly declared that the Sox would be better off without Ruth, the deal stands unchallenged as the most lopsided transaction in baseball history. For good measure, and more Yankee dollars, over the next two years Frazee sent to New York pitchers Waite Hoyt, Joe Bush, Sad Sam Jones, catcher Wally Schang, shortstop Everett Scott, and third baseman Joe Dugan. By the time the Yanks acquired pitcher Red Ruffing from Boston for outfielder Cederic Durst and $50,000 in May 1930, Frazee had established himself as chief architect of the Yankee dynasty. The Yankees weren't alone in wooing Frazee to acquire Ruth. John McGraw put in a bid on the Sox slugger but was rebuffed. So McGraw turned his attention to the best righthanded hitter around, St. Louis Cardinal second baseman Rogers Hornsby. Reportedly, during the winter of 1919-1920 McGraw offered Branch Rickey $250,000 for his star (another report pegged the offer at five players and a more reasonable $70,000). Hornsby's six straight batting titles from 1920-1925, with triple crowns in 1922 and 1925, may have inspired Rickey's maxim, "Some of the best deals are the ones you don't make." But back in 1919, the stumbling block was a replacement second baseman. Rickey wanted Frankie Frisch, the Fordham Flash, who had batted .226 and stolen 15 bases in a 54-game rookie campaign. McGraw refused to part with his future captain and debating partner. When the Giants faltered, the Cardinals took the world championship in 1926 with Hornsby serving as manager. The Rajah's production dropped, and his dictatorial manner had players near rebellion. But Hornsby's biggest problem was with owner Harry Breadon, whom Hornsby had cursed in full view of the Cardinal players when Breadon refused to cancel an exhibition game during the 1926 pennant race. Breadon ordered Rickey to trade the manager. So Rickey, whose gospel included "better to trade a player a year too early than a year too late," offered the 30-year old second sacker to McGraw for Frisch, who had averaged 28 steals per year but had gotten on the wrong side of his manager. The Giants sweetened the deal with pitcher Jimmy Ring and the two second basemen were swapped. Hornsby batted .361 while leading the NL in runs scored for the Giants, and Cardinal Frisch took the stolen-base crown, but neither club won the flag in 1927. Predictably, the strong wills of McGraw and Hornsby clashed, resulting in the Rajah's exit to the Boston Braves for catcher Shanty Hogan and outfielder Jimmy Welsh following the 1927 season. After a seventh batting crown with the Braves in 1928, Boston sent him to the Cubs for five players and an irresistible $200,000. Hornsby took over for Joe McCarthy as manager of the Cubs at the end of 1930 and continued through nearly two-thirds of the 1932 campaign before angering another owner. Charlie Grimm took the reins from Hornsby and led the club to the pennant. Hornsby began the 1933 season with the Cardinals but moved across town to the Browns as player-manager with 54 games to go and remained there through the 1937 season, never finishing in the first division. Frisch was a key member of the Cardinals' Gas House Gang, going to the World Series in 1928, 1930 and 1931. The Fordham Flash became their manager in the middle of 1933, led them to a World Series victory over the Tigers in 1934, and stayed at the helm until the tail end of the 1938 season. The Red Sox passed into the capable hands and deep pockets of Tom Yawkey in 1933, just in time to participate in Connie Mack's final Philadelphia fire sale. That December, marginal pitcher Bob Kline, shortstop Rabbit Warstler plus $125,000 brought the Red Sox Hall of Famer Grove, plus pitcher Walberg and second baseman Max Bishop. Two Decembers later, $150,000 of Yawkey's cash, minor league catcher George Savino, and 2-10 righthander Gordon Rhodes pried Hall of Fame slugger Jimmie Foxx from Mack. Throughout the Depression, Yawkey's cash made him a popular man with Boston fans and AL owners alike. The Red Sox bought a number of quality players, including outfielders Bing Miller and Henie Manush, and the brothers Ferrell, catcher Rick and pitcher Wes, in separate deals. (Subsequently, in the only transaction of its kind, the batterymate brothers were traded together to the Senators in 1937 for outfielder Ben Chapman and pitcher Bobo Newsom.) In another family affair, Washington owner Clark Griffith reluctantly sold his Hall of Fame shortstop and son-in-law Joe Cronin to the Sox after the 1934 season for $225,000 and shortstop Lyn Lary. Legend has it that Yawkey swayed The Old Fox by saying, "I can do more for your son-in-law than you can," and then signed Cronin to a $30,000 contract. (Lest anyone suspect the Sox have gone soft on family ties, Boston managing partner Haywood Sullivan sold his son, catcher Marc, to the Houston Astros prior to the 1988 season.) Yawkey's acquisitions improved the Red Sox--not surprisingly since they were 43-111 in 1932--but they failed to capture the AL flag until 1946. The Cubs rivaled the Cards as the NL's best team during the Depression on the strength of the Wrigley family bank account and trades for Hornsby, Kiki Cuyler, and Chuck Klein. In 1938, they picked up Dizzy Dean, thought to be finished after breaking a toe in the 1937 All-Star Game, then hurting his arm. Dean dipsy-doodled his way to a 7-1, 1.81 season for the eventual World Series sweep victims. The Reds unseated the Cubs in 1939 on the strength of trades throughout the decade including those for pitchers Paul Derringer and Bucky Walters, outfielder Ival Goodman and second baseman Lonnie Frey. But the Reds' best deal of the 1930s was undone. They purchased Johnny Mize from the Cards in December 1934, but returned the Big Cat when he showed up with a bad knee. Mize averaged 26 homers in six seasons for the Cards, notching a pair of home run titles before going to the Giants after the 1941 season for three no-names and 50 grand. Two homer crowns later, Mize moved to the Yankees in August 1949 for $40,000, helping New York win its first of 10 pennants under skipper Casey Stengel. Mize led the AL in pinch hits three times as the Yankees made five straight trips to the World Series during his tenure in the Bronx. Upon purchasing the Indians in June 1946, Bill Veeck hoped to stick it to the Yankees, symbols of the baseball establishment he detested. After the 1946 season, Veeck stole lefty knuckleballer Gene Bearden, 20-7 with a league-best 2.43 ERA for the Tribe's 1948 world champions, along with pitcher Al Gettel and three-toed outfielder Hal Peck, both helpful in restoring the Tribe to respectability in 1947, for catcher Sherm Lollar and second baseman Ray Mack, neither much good as Yankees. Veeck selected Bearden from a list of prospects on the advice of Casey Stengel, who had managed for Veeck's Milwaukee Brewers in the American Association. Before 1948, Veeck got outfielder Allie Clark, a .310 hitter with 38 RBI as a part-timer, for pitcher Red Embree, who had eight wins left in his major league career. The usual show-biz flair characterized Veeck's stewardship. St. Louis Browns utility infielder Johnny Berardino refused a trade to the Senators over the winter of 1947 and announced his retirement to pursue a promising career in the movies. Veeck quickly acquired Berardino for outfielder Catfish Metkovich and $50,000 (a broken finger caused the Brownies to return Metkovich and settle for an additional $15,000), then wooed the 30-year-old actor back into baseball by offering a higher salary plus an attendance clause, a movie contract (Veeck's Cleveland investors included Bob Hope), and insuring Berardino's face for $1 million, the same amount riding on Betty Grable's legs. Berardino, who went on to stardom in the General Hospital soap opera, generated loads of publicity, but Veeck's pursuit had a solid baseball foundation. Detroit, second-place finishers in 1947, desperately needed a second baseman, and Veeck wanted to keep Berardino out of the Tigers' clutches. Amid the sideshows and promotions, Veeck's key deal to make the Tribe world champions in 1948 was that most rare type, one that benefited both teams. The Indians had a magnificent shortstop in Lou Boudreau, who also served as their manager, but they needed a quality second baseman to pair with him. At the 1946 World Series, Veeck met his Yankee counterpart Lee MacPhail, an angry spectator on the prowl for pitching. He offered MacPhail 31-year-old righthander Allie Reynolds, four games over .500 after four years in the Indians' rotation. Veeck decoyed, suggesting that MacPhail trade him George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss, an infielder with two stolen base crowns and a batting title to his credit during the war years. MacPhail balked, counteroffering 31-year-old second baseman Joe Gordon with whom he'd been feuding. That was the man Veeck wanted. With Boudreau and Gordon in the middle of the infield, the 1947 Indians turned 31 more double plays and led the league in fielding, tacking on a second fielding crown in 1948. Gordon piled up 29 homers and 93 RBIs in his first season in Cleveland and followed up with a 32-homer, 124-RBI, .280 campaign for the 1948 world champs. Reynolds went 19-8, leading the AL in winning percentage for the pennant winning 1947 Yankees, then topped the league in ERA, shutouts and strikeouts while winning 20 in 1952. A stalwart in the Yankee rotation through 1954, Reynolds finished his career at 182-107, 75 games over .500. The Indians got their world championship with Gordon, and the Yankees got six, the way things went back then. The Indians' World Series triumph over the Boston Braves in 1948 would be the last for an AL squad other than the Yankees until the Orioles swept the Dodgers in 1966. When the Yankees didn't reach the World Series in 1954 after five straight visits, general manager George Weiss took dramatic action, engineering a record 18-player deal with the Orioles, commencing November 18, 1954 and winding up the next May when pitcher Art Schallock went to Baltimore via the waiver wire. The Yankees got the better of the mess, largely composed of marginal players, most notably hurlers Don Larsen and Bob Turley. Larsen, 3-21 for the 1954 Birds, went 45-24 in five seasons wearing the pinstripes, adding three World Series victories including his perfect game in 1956. Turley went 17-13 for the resurgent 1955 Yankees, and took the Cy Young Award in 1958, leading the AL with 21 wins and 19 complete games. Turley also contributed from the bench as an expert pitch stealer, tipping off Mickey Mantle and others about the upcoming delivery with a whistle or clap. The New York-Kansas City pipeline during the 1950s prompted one of baseball's best nicknames: Harry "Suitcase" Simpson. The outfielder-first baseman spent three uneventful seasons in Cleveland, batting .266 once, under .230 twice, then found himself back in the minors in 1954 at age 28. Simpson climbed back onto the Indians' roster in 1955 but after three appearances was sold to the A's on May 11 and thus his saga began. Simpson batted .300 for the A's and thought he had found a home. In 1956 he led the AL in triples with 11, hit 21 homers, drove in 105 runs, and batted .293, exploits that earned the attention of the Yankees. On June 15, 1957, Simpson and his .296 batting average went to New York with pitcher Ryne Duren and outfielder Jim Pisoni in exchange for Ralph Terry, Woodie Held, and brawling Billy Martin. Simpson finished 1957 with a .270 average and again led the league with nine triples. Exactly one year later, June 15, 1958, the Yankees sent Simpson back to Kansas City with pitcher Bob Grim for pitchers Duke Maas and Virgil Trucks. He ended the 1958 season with a .255 mark and opened the 1959 season in Kansas City, but a month into the campaign he was traded to the White Sox for third baseman Ray Boone. Fifteen weeks later, Simpson was traded to Pittsburgh with a minor league infielder for Ted Kluszewski. Pittsburgh sold Simpson back to the White Sox at the end of the season. With no frequent flyer programs to motivate him, Simpson never returned to the majors. In all, he logged six trades, five of them in 26 months, all but the finale in mid-season. During this same era, Frank Lane served as general manager for the White Sox, Cardinals, Indians and A's. He helped construct the White Sox squad that interrupted the Yankee's stranglehold on the AL pennant, then earned the wrath of Cleveland fans by trading 1959 AL homer leader (tied at 42 with Harmon Killebrew) and local hero Rocky Colavito for Detroit's 1959 batting titlist Harvey Kuenn. The move was splashy and daring, but helped neither team unseat the Yankees. Lane may be best remembered for his mid-1960 swap of managers, acquiring Jimmy Dykes to lead his Indians and sending Joe Gordon to pilot the Tigers. Stan Musial, the St. Louis Cardinals' finest player of the post-war era, retired after the 1963 season, having last visited a World Series in 1946. In 1964, the Cards won their first of three pennants and two world titles during the 1960s. After selling future Hall of Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm to Cleveland in September 1957, the Cards ran off a string of trading successes nearly unbroken for a dozen years that would have made Branch Rickey proud. The construction of the Cardinals' championship teams of the 1960s dates from the December 5, 1957 acquisition of center fielder Curt Flood, along with outfielder Joe Taylor, from the Reds for pitchers Marty Kutyna and Ted Wieand. Before a later deal made him famous, Flood won six Gold Gloves and batted over .300 six times (under .296 once) between 1961 and 1969. At the end of spring training in 1959, fine-fielding first baseman Bill White was acquired from the Giants, who had plenty of other lefthanded first basemen, with third baseman Ray Jablonski for another pair of pitchers, Don Choate, who never had a major league victory, and Sam Jones. At 33, this second Sad Sam topped the NL with 22 wins and a 2.83 ERA in 1959 and won 18 more games in 1960, then dropped off severely. White batted at least .283, topping .300 four times, in seven seasons with the Cards, knocked in 100 runs three times and averaged 20 homers, while collecting a Gold Glove annually. With Ken Boyer anchoring third base, St. Louis secured the remainder of the infield for their 1964 championship squad with help from Pittsburgh. Second baseman Julian Javier escaped the shadow of perennial all-star Bill Mazeroski in May 1960, and shortstop Dick Groat, NL batting champion in 1960 for the world champion Bucs, arrived in '63. These moves made the Cardinals contenders, six games behind the Dodgers in 1963, but the Redbirds needed more help to get over the top. They got it from their long-standing rivals, the Chicago Cubs. The Cards sent pitchers Ernie Broglio and Bobby Shantz plus part-time outfielder Doug Clemens to Chicago for a couple of marginal hurlers and an outfielder three days short of his 25th birthday named Lou Brock. Broglio hurt his arm and went 7-19 in three seasons with Chicago before dropping from sight. Shantz recorded a loss during his two months in Chicago before moving to Philadelphia, his eighth and final major league team. In his 16 years with the Cardinals, Brock picked up where Maury Wills left off in re-establishing the stolen base as an integral part of major league offenses. All but 50 of Brock's career-record 938 steals were made in a St. Louis uniform, including a then-season record 118 in 1974. Brock ranks second to Stan Musial in hits, runs, total bases, and doubles for the Cards, finishing with 3,023 hits and a ticket to Cooperstown. With Brock igniting the offense from the leadoff spot, the 1964 Cardinals squeaked past the Philadelphia Phillies in a wild pennant race and defeated the New York Yankees. The Cards won again in 1967 and lost a seventh game to Mickey Lolich and the Detroit Tigers in 1968. Brock's seven steals in both the 1967 and 1968 remain single-Series standards. In 21 October classic games, Brock batted .391, tops among participants in 20 or more Series games, and is tied with Eddie Collins for the Series career lead with 14 steals. The Dodgers matched the Cards with three pennants in the 1960s, with trips to the Series in 1963, 1965 and 1966, aided by deals providing bullpen support for the homegrown hurlers. They shipped third baseman Don Zimmer to the Cubs for reliever Ron Perranoski, as well as third baseman John Goryl, a minor league outfielder and $25,000, just before opening day in 1960. After a year of seasoning in the minors, Perranoski became a dominant reliever, going 16-3 with a 1.67 ERA and saving 23 games for the 1963 champs. He saved the Dodgers' only 1963 World Series triumph that wasn't a complete game in their stunning sweep of the Yankees. Before the 1966 season, the Dodgers got reliever Phil "The Vulture" Regan from the Tigers for utility infielder Dick Tracewski. Regan imitated Perranoski's previous heroics, with a 14-1, 1.62 mark and league leading 21 saves for 1966 pennant winners. The Cards kept dealing. In May 1966, they got another first baseman from the Giants, Orlando Cepeda, for lefthander Ray Sadecki, a 20-game winner in 1964 who never again broke a dozen wins. Cepeda dubbed his new club "El Birdos," then batted .325 in 1967 with 25 homers and an NL best 111 RBIs to receive National League MVP honors. Traded to the Braves for Joe Torre during spring training in 1969, Cepeda helped Atlanta win the first NL West crown, but there's no word as to whether he called his new club "El Bravos." Roger Maris, acquired from the Yankees at the winter meetings before the 1967 season for third baseman Charley Smith, allowed the Cards to move Mike Shannon from right-field to third. The Cincinnati Reds followed Rickey's adage about trading a player a year too soon when they sent Frank Robinson, an "old 30," according to the Reds' brain trust, to the Baltimore Orioles for pitchers Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson. But what a year too soon it turned out to be. Robinson won the triple crown and MVP as the Orioles collected their first-ever world championship. The O's bagged another three American League pennants and a second world title during Robinson's six seasons in Baltimore. The trio of pitchers Cincinnati received recorded a total of 31 victories for the Reds, and none of them was still in the majors when Robby hung up his spikes in 1976. Trades helped rebuild the Reds after the Robinson disaster, adding key components to a farm system harvest that included Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, and Dave Concepcion. The team was perennially short of starting pitching but picked up relievers to back Sparky Anderson's Captain Hook act and had phenomenal success trading for position players. After the 1968 season, the Reds traded aging center-fielder Vada Pinson to the Cardinals for center-fielder Bobby Tolan, who led the NL in steals with 57 in 1970, batted .316 with 16 homers and 80 RBIs and seemed ready for greater things before a torn Achilles' tendon kept him out for the entire 1971 campaign. As if that wasn't enough, the deal also brought the Reds' reliever Wayne Granger, who paced the NL with 35 saves in 1970. In May 1971, sending pitcher Vern Geishert and shortstop Frank Duffy to San Francisco secured George Foster, winner of three consecutive RBI titles starting in 1976. After a fourth place finish in 1971, their last sub-.500 season until 1982, the Reds sent the right side of their infield (first baseman Lee May and second baseman Tommy Helms) to the Astros with outfielder Jimmy Stewart for super center-fielder Cesar Geronimo, third baseman Dennis Menke (moving Tony Perez to a more comfortable existence at first base), pitcher Jack Billingham, who became the workhorse of the Cincinnati starting staff, reserve outfielder Ed Armbrister, and second baseman Joe Morgan, who notched MVP honors in 1975 and 1976. The trade gave the Reds classic strength up the middle, with Geronimo, Morgan, Concepcion, and Bench receiving Gold Gloves annually from 1974 to 1977. Trades boosted other 1970s winners. Early in the decade, the Yankees acquired Graig Nettles and Chris Chambliss to anchor the corners, Lou Piniella and Oscar Gamble as platooning doctors of hitology, and stole reliever Sparky Lyle from the Red Sox for first baseman Danny Cater, who murdered Boston hurlers but few others. Center-fielder and offensive catalyst Mickey Rivers and stalwart starter Ed Figueroa were acquired for Bobby Bonds at the winter meetings of 1975, as was second baseman Willie Randolph with pitchers Ken Brett and Dock Ellis from the Pirates for Doc Medich. The Yankees also bolstered the rival Orioles by sending key lefthanders Scott McGregor and Tippy Martinez, righties Rudy May and Dave Pagan, plus catcher Rick Dempsey to Baltimore for pitchers Ken Holtzman, Grant Jackson and Doyle Alexander, all of whom would do their best work elsewhere, and washed-up catcher Elrod Hendricks on June 15, 1976. The three-time world champion A's supplemented their fine nucleus with Holtzman, acquired before the 1972 campaign for center-fielder Rick Monday, first baseman Mike Epstein, and reliever Darold Knowles in 1971, center-fielder Billy North before the 1973 campaign, and a succession of DHs such as Orlando Cepeda, Deron Johnson, Rico Carty, and Billy Williams from NL clubs, at bargain prices since the senior circuit had less use for their single skill. The Dodgers, who provided the Reds with their most serious competition in the NL West, annually shored up their offense with used power hitters: Richie Allen for 1971; Frank Robinson and Larry Hisle for 1972; Jimmy Wynn for 1974, and Reggie Smith in 1976, along with Dusty Baker, both of whom lasted into the 1980s. They won the 1974 West title as reliever Mike Marshall, acquired from Montreal the previous winter for aged speedster Willie Davis, appeared in a record 106 games, ringing up a 15-12, 21 save log. Three of the game's all-time great hurlers were involved in trades during the 1970s. The Mets, following their post-1969 season trade of Amos Otis to Kansas City for third base flop Joe Foy, acquired Jim Fregosi from the California Angels for a scatter-armed fireballer named Nolan Ryan and three prospects. The Phils heisted Steve Carlton from the Cards in February 1972 for Rick Wise. In June 1977, the Mets sent Tom Seaver to the Reds for outfielders Steve Henderson and Dan Norman, second baseman Doug Flynn, and pitcher Pat Zachry, a deal brought on by a contract dispute and sealed by a vendetta conducted against Seaver by columnist Dick Young on behalf of the Mets' chairman M. Donald Grant. In the aftermath of the trade, Shea Stadium became known as Grant's Tomb. The deal with the greatest impact on the 1970s was made in October 1969, when the Cardinals tried to send Curt Flood to the Phillies in a seven-player swap. Although Flood lost his suit against the reserve clause, the challenge alerted owners to the need for concessions and brought arbitrators into the game. The arbitrator's ruling that ended the reserve system in 1975 came about in part because of lefthander Dave McNally's refusal to sign a contract for 1975 following his trade from the Orioles to Montreal. An arbitrator declared Oakland A's star pitcher Catfish Hunter a free agent following the 1974 season, because owner Charles O. Finley had reneged on paying for an annuity. Baseball owners got a taste of what was to come. After leading the AL with 25 wins, his fourth consecutive 20-plus win season, and a 2.49 ERA, Hunter was the object of lively bidding before agreeing to a five-year, $3.75 million contract with the Yankees on New Year's Eve. At the time, the average major league salary was under $45,000. Before the 1981 season, an arbitrator declared Boston catcher Carlton Fisk a free agent because the Red Sox had failed to mail him a contract on time, allowing Fisk to change to the White Sox. Arbitrators found major league owners guilty of collusion to restrain free agent movement after the 1985 and 1986 seasons, and seven Class of '85 members were granted a second chance at free agency prior to the '88 campaign. Only outfielder Kirk Gibson signed with a new club, leaving Detroit for LA and leading the Dodgers to postseason play. The run-up to the new free agent system in 1976 featured frantic dealing by clubs unsure of where the chips would fall. Knowing that he couldn't afford to keep all of his stars, Oakland A's owner Charles O. Finley traded Reggie Jackson, Ken Holtzman, and a minor leaguer to Baltimore (which couldn't afford them either) for Don Baylor and pitchers Mike Torrez and Paul Mitchell. Thus began the era of rent-a-player, as teams tried to get something for potential free agents they expected to lose, and receiving clubs hoped for good salary-drive seasons. Bill Veeck used this approach with some success, not to mention increased program sales, during his second stint with the White Sox from 1976 to 1980, with one-year wonders like Richie Zisk and Oscar Gamble. Realizing he couldn't outbid rich clubs for the best players, Finley hoped to sell the remaining stars from the three-time world champion teams, just as Connie Mack did with the franchise six decades earlier. Finley sold pitcher Vida Blue to the Yankees, reportedly for $1.5 million, and outfielder Joe Rudi and reliever Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox at $1 million each. Blue never reached New York, but Fingers and Rudi reported to Boston on June 15 and donned Red Sox uniforms, but didn't play in that evening's contest. The next day, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn barred the three players from further competition pending his review, then undid the deals. Kuhn ruled that Finley's sales would cheat the people of Oakland out of a competitive team. (Commissioner Kuhn saw things differently than attorney Kuhn, who argued in court for the Braves' right to abandon Milwaukee for Atlanta in 1965.) Finley argued that the cash would allow him to rebuild a depleted farm system, the best method for a low-income club like Oakland to compete in the age of escalating salaries. Kuhn's edict also ignored the reality that the A's and their fans would lose those free agents with no return at the end of the season, as happened with Rudi, Fingers and host of others after 1976 (Blue had been signed to a contract in anticipation of his sale). In December 1977, Finley tried to sell Blue, this time to the Reds for $1.75 million, plus minor league slugger Dave Revering. Kuhn again foiled Finley, establishing a $400,000 per transaction cash limit still in effect. Later that winter, Finley finally disposed of his prize lefty, shipping him across the bay to San Francisco for seven players and $390,000. Traditionalist doomsayers predicted that free agency would ruin the fine art of baseball trading, not to mention the game itself, just as divisional play and the League Championship Series were supposed to kill the World Series. Owners and fans had no reason to fear change. The post-Seitz free agent system has added new dimensions to baseball's trading game, as well as enhancing the game's competitive balance on the field and redistributing income. With players free to change teams after six years in the big leagues, teams had a new option for improving their rosters. The system also presented front offices with whole new reasons to trade players. Dire predictions of how the richest teams would get the best players and destroy the game's competitive balance under free agency conveniently ignored nearly a century of baseball history. Modern free agency didn't alter the flow of talent from the financially strapped teams to the better-off ones; it just altered the direction of the cash. The money went to the player in the form of salary instead of to his former team as the purchase price. From the dawn of the professional game, talent has moved from the strapped teams to the affluent ones. It was no coincidence that dynasties of the era before the amateur draft were built by the wealthy teams. The dirty little secret of the John J. McGraw New York Giants wasn't their connection to corrupt Tammany Hall politicians, but their wealth, which enabled them to search deeper for talent, sign more prospects, buy more talent from independent minor league operators, and pay the players they needed. Winning meant more revenue, which helped successful teams remain successful. The next dynasty, the New York Yankees, shared that same big market--and for a time their home field--with the Giants. The Bronx dynasty began when Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold his stars, most notably Babe Ruth, to the Yanks to finance his theatrical ventures. Frazee's follies merely continued a Red Sox tradition; his predecessor, Joseph Lannin, sold Tris Speaker to Cleveland. Then, as now, salaries also mattered. Connie Mack twice broke up multiple-World Champion Philadelphia Athletics teams because they grew too costly. After all, the 1914 A's featured the $100,000 infield. The St. Louis Cardinals under Branch Rickey developed the farm system as an antidote to wealthy teams' player purchases. His Cardinals joined the ranks of the rich by selling farm system excesses to other teams and became the dominant National League team between the wars. Even though talent flowed to the richest teams in the past and today, teams have never been able to buy championships outright. After Tom Yawkey purchased the Red Sox in 1933, the team became renowned for its generosity to players and actively participated in the second breakup of the Athletics, acquiring stars such as Lefty Grove and Jimmy Foxx. Still, during six decades of Yawkey ownership, the Red Sox failed to duplicate their 1918 world championship. Similarly the Yankees of the 1980s had the best overall won-lost record of that decade, thanks in part to profligate free agent spending under owner George Steinbrenner, but failed to win a title except for the truncated 1981 season. The Mets and Dodgers, the teams with the National League's highest payrolls in 1992, inflated by free agent spending, were awful, while the spendthrift Toronto Blue Jays won back-to-back world titles in 1992 and 1993. Successful franchises have, almost to a rule, blended home-grown talent with players acquired from other teams, either through trades or free agent signings. Wise spending beats free spending every time. The free agent rule change having the greatest impact on competition was the institution of the amateur draft in 1965. Prior to the draft, teams competed for prospects according to the golden rule--whoever has the gold rules. The pool of amateur players was baseball's first free market, with all teams competing equally to sign players and bind them to organizations for life through the reserve clause. Richer teams could outbid rivals for top prospects, even after bonus baby restrictions forced teams to keep high priced signees on the major league roster. Just as important as contract money, richer teams could outscout others, digging deeper to find talent and bird-dogging harder to build relationships with teenaged prospects and their families that were often as crucial to signings as money. The amateur draft, with the worst teams picking first, eliminated a prospect's right to choose his team, but it helped dismantle the dynasties by equalizing opportunities to acquire the best young talent. That foundation gave teams better players to keep and to trade. The other boost to competitiveness came with major league free agency. The team with the best players could no longer hold on to them forever. After six full years of major league service, a player not under contract could offer his services in a free market, causing salaries to soar. Even collusion among owners following the 1985, 1986, and 1987 seasons failed to destroy the system and caused only a temporary pause in the dizzying pace of salary escalation. A record number of free agents after the 1992 season may have given owners a more useful lesson in controlling salaries. Scarcity has made multimillionaires out of marginal players such as Danny Darwin, Matt Young, and Franklin Stubbs because they were the best available at their positions in that season's particular free agent class. When it became apparent that the reserve clause would fall, Finley, in another show of his near-infallible baseball business instincts, proposed letting every player become a free agent every year. According to Finley, and most economists, in a free market, increased supply would lower prices. Whether by design or happy accident, the system gave players their first taste of freedom at or near the peaks of their careers. Age, not sloth, suggests they'll likely earn more money for less output after signing lucrative free agent contracts. Even with salary arbitration pushing up their salaries after three years of major league service, young players generally deliver better value for salary dollars than veterans past their sixth big league season. That fact of life may have contributed to team success cycles replacing the dynasties of old. As in the past, a team near the top will be most inclined to acquire current stars for a piece of their future, either by signing free agents or trading prospects. In most cases, their flow of minor league talent eventually dries up, their star players age, and their payroll is higher than their winning percentage, as happened to the Pittsburgh Pirates of the mid-1980s. Under General Manager Syd Thrift, after letting free agent Dave Parker walk, they traded away their aging stars and their salaries for unproven talent: John Candelaria, Al Holland, and George Hendrick for Pat Clements, Bob Kipper, and Mike Brown; Rick Rhoden, plus Clements and Cecilio Guante, for future Cy Young-winner Doug Drabek, Brian Fisher, and Logan Easley; Tony Pena for Andy Van Slyke, Mike LaValliere, and Mike Dunne. With smart drafts, including Barry Bonds (but Jeff King instead of Greg Swindell), and a terrific manager in Jim Leyland, they went--in the space of four seasons--from three straight last place finishes to the first of three straight division championships. Hit by free agency losses and economically inspired trades, the cycle appears to be spinning downward again for the Pirates as the mid-nineties approach. The Houston Astros, winner of the NL West in 1986, began their rebuilding process in earnest after the 1990 season, and after a last place finish in 1991, rebounded to .500 in 1992. Even though major league free agency offers a method to acquire players without giving up one in return (under the current rules, signing a quality free agent costs a draft choice, so the bill comes due years later), trades remain the lifeblood of winning--and losing--teams, just as they have for over a century. The signings of Reggie Jackson and relief ace Rich Gossage were driving forces in the Yankees' four AL East titles and a pair of world championships in the first five years of free agency. Equally important were trades for defensive specialist Paul Blair, shortstop Bucky Dent, pitcher Mike Torrez, and reliever Ron Davis. The "We Are Family" Pirates of 1979 were abetted by trades for outfielder Mike Easler, second baseman Phil Garner, pitchers Bert Blyleven and Rick Rhoden, shortstop Tim Foli, and, finally, on June 28, Bill Madlock to fill the troublesome third base slot. The deal was notable in addition to its pennant implications for including infielder Lenny Randle, who had slugged manager Frank Lucchesi while a member of the Texas Rangers in the spring of 1977, and pitcher Ed Whitson, who would slug manager Billy Martin while a member of the Yankees in 1985. Madlock never got beyond shoving his glove into umpire Jerry Crawford's face in 1980. The Phillies, who divided NL East honors with the Pirates between 1975 and 1980, combined a potent farm system that produced Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, Larry Bowa, Bob Boone, and others, the continuing dominance of Steve Carlton, and sharp trades for pitchers Jim Lonborg and Jim Kaat, second baseman Dave Cash, center fielder and secretary of defense Garry Maddox, and Rollie Fingers from San Diego (with pitcher Bob Shirley and catchers Gene Tenace and Bob Geren for catchers Terry Kennedy and Steve Swisher, utility infielder Mike Phillips and four pitchers of little note), and, one day later at the winter meetings, Bruce Sutter from the Cubs (for first baseman Leon Durham, third baseman Ken Reitz, and utility man Ty Waller). The Cards then shipped Fingers to Milwaukee with pitcher Pete Vuckovich and catcher Ted Simmons for outfielders Sixto Lezcano and David Green, plus pitchers Lary Sorensen and Dave LaPoint. The deal helped bring the Cards and Brewers together for the 1982 World Series, as Fingers (1981) and Vuckovich (1982) won back-to-back Cy Young Awards, the only pitchers in the same trade to pull off that feat. The Cards reloaded for three trips to the World Series during the 1980s with smart deals for: Ozzie Smith (with two pitchers from the Padres for Garry Templeton, Sixto Lezcano, and Luis DeLeon); Lonnie Smith (in a three-team trade also involving the Indians and Phillies that cost St. Louis pitchers Silvio Martinez and Lary Sorensen); and Willie McGee (from the Yankees for pitcher Bob Sykes), all before the 1982 world championship. Coming later were John Tudor (with Brian Harper, who would have had the game winning RBI in the sixth game of the 1985 World Series but for Don Denkinger's infamous call at first base, for George Hendrick and a minor league catcher), and Jack Clark (from the Giants for David Green, Dave LaPoint, Gary Rajsich, and that ultimate player to be named later, Jose Gonzalez, who became Jose Uribe). Free agency has actually lubricated the trade market. Impending free agency has created a new reason to trade a player. The David Cone trade--in which the Toronto Blue Jays leased the pitcher from the Mets for forty days plus the postseason--illustrates the evolution of the art, and how much potential free agency devalues the player. For a twenty-nine-year-old pitcher en route to a third straight National League strikeout title with the best stuff in the game this side of Roger Clemens, the Mets received only unproven infielder Jeff Kent and marginal prospect Ryan Thompson. Unable to land a pitcher for the 1993 stretch run due to expansion depleting the arms supply, the Jays traded farm system jewel Steve Karsay for free agent-to-be Rickey Henderson, a stiffer price, and some suggested the Jays would have been better off simply promoting Karsay from Double A. He joined the Oakland rotation after the trade, and could well prove the cynics right. The biggest blockbuster of 1992, in which the Oakland A's traded Jose Canseco for Ruben Sierra, plus pitchers Jeff Russell and Bobby Witt, was also inspired by free agency and its side effect, big salaries. The A's were obligated to pay Canseco nearly $15 million through the 1995 season. So, in addition to adding a couple of pitchers for the stretch drive, the A's lopped off a long term commitment, giving them time to assess whether salaries were indeed heading downward. Some observers might cite these deals as proof of how the game has changed. Yet salaries inflated by the Federal League led to the breakup of the A's champions of the 1910s and the sale of Tris Speaker. Trades have always been a factor in the useful life of a player, which in the past meant solely age, rather than including today's contract considerations. The rules have changed and the possibilities have grown, but the sizzle of players changing teams--by their choice or that of their bosses--remains a baseball staple. The baseball strike of 1981 resulted in a new way to acquire players, a compensation pool from which teams losing a top-ranked free agent (as determined by a complex statistical system) could choose an unprotected player from any team. The most important picks from the short-lived pool, which ended with the Basic Agreement signed in 1985, were fireballing Toronto closer Tom Henke; reliever Donnie Moore, instrumental in the Angels' 1986 AL West title; righthander Tim Belcher, a key to the Dodgers' 1988 success, who had previously been plucked by the Oakland A's days after signing out of college with the Yankees; and the Chicago White Sox's selection of Tom Seaver in 1984 after the Mets had brought their all-time leading pitcher back with great fanfare in 1983 to restore faith in the franchise. Perhaps there was some justice in the Mets' random loss of Seaver since they acquired him through a similar stroke. William Eckert's most meaningful act in his tenure as Commissioner involved picking a slip out of a hat, awarding Seaver to the Mets. Seaver had been drafted off the Southern Cal campus in January of that year and signed by the Atlanta Braves, but his contract was invalidated on a technicality, while the NCAA ruled him ineligible for further college competition. Threatened with a lawsuit unless the righthander was allowed to sign another pro contract immediately, Eckert offered Seaver to any club that would match the Braves $40,000 bonus. Three teams expressed interest, the Indians, Phillies, and Mets, and on April 3, Eckert pulled New York's slip out of a hat and a franchise out of the wilderness. Today's serious consideration of salary, contract term and major league tenure that go into making deals shouldn't obscure how zany trades can be. Perhaps today's game is too sophisticated to again see a club pay its rent for spring training facilities in Little Rock with Tris Speaker, as the Red Sox did in 1908. At least the Sox were farsighted enough to retain the option to repurchase Speaker from Little Rock in the Southern Association for the $500 they owed in rent. Perhaps several decades' perspective will uncover a deal as amusing as that 1939 trade sending outfielder Gee Walker to the Senators from the White Sox for outfielder Taffy Wright and pitcher Pete Appleton. Someday we may see a repeat of the Cardinals and Cubs exchange of outfielders Max Flack and Cliff Heathcoate between games of a May 30, 1922 doubleheader, although the modern version will likely require a preceding rain out. Rest assured, trade history can repeat itself. The Mets obtained Harry Chiti from Cleveland on April 26, 1962, for a player to be named later. After watching Chiti hit .195 in 15 games, the Mets named Chiti as the player to be sent to the Indians. In September 1987, the Cubs sent reliever Dickie Noles to assist the Tigers' bare bullpen in their pennant drive for that PTBNL. It was rumored that Noles was the forward scout for a larger deal between the clubs, involving the Cubs' hard-hitting, harder-gloved third baseman Keith Moreland. However, in November, Chicago GM Dallas Green resigned and any contemplated deal fell apart. The clubs haggled unsuccessfully on a fair price for Noles, eventually agreeing to make him the Cubs' player to be named. A recent trend in the market seems to be many players for one star, such as the Phillies' acquisition of Von Hayes from the Indians at the 1982 winter meetings for outfielder George Vukovich, catcher Jerry Willard, pitcher Jay Baller, and infielders Manny Trillo and Julio Franco. The Yankees got Rickey Henderson (and pitcher Bert Bradley) from the A's after the 1983 season for outfielder Stan Javier and pitchers Eric Plunk, Jose Rijo, Jay Howell, and Tim Birtsas. The Mets snatched catcher Gary Carter from the Expos after the 1984 season for infielder Hubie Brooks, outfielder Herm Winningham, pitcher Floyd Youmans, and catcher Mike Fitzgerald. In each case, the stars have outperformed the numbers. But for sheer bulk, there's still no challenger to the biggest one-for-one ever, the December 12, 1975, deal that sent Detroit pitcher Mickey Lolich to the Mets for outfielder Rusty Staub, close to 500 pounds of beef changing sides. Even the old Yankee-Kansas City pipeline may be in the midst of a revival, rerouted through Chicago. The Yankees and White Sox made seven deals between December 1984 and November 1987, even though the Yankees' principal owner had once called White Sox partners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn "Abbott and Costello." Those seven deals saw minor leaguers Mike Soper, Glen Braxton, and Scott Nielsen ping-pong between the organizations, and four of the deals included big league catcher Ron "Hand Luggage" Hassey. If you're looking for the oddest trade ever, refer to the June 1973 deal that sent Yankee lefthander Mike Kekich to Cleveland for a pitcher named Lowell Powell. The trade came about because an earlier swap had soured, one between Kekich and fellow Yankee southpaw Fritz Peterson. They exchanged their families, wives, houses, and dogs, a scene the Yankees broke up when Kekich's relationship with the previous Mrs. Peterson deteriorated and resentment affected his pitching. (Kekich was out of the majors in 1974 and, naturally, Peterson was traded to Cleveland that year. After their major league careers, Peterson became a honcho in Baseball Chapel and Kekich, who studied medicine and pitched in Mexico, became a doctor.) Baseball's Most One-Sided Trades 1) Babe Ruth from Boston Red Sox to New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $300,000 loan, January 3, 1920: If you're looking at the bottom line, gate receipts from a couple of World Series would have brought in more cash than the Sox got from the Yankees. If you're looking at baseball history, no one made more than George Herman Ruth. 2) Christy Mathewson to New York Giants from Cincinnati Reds for Amos Rusie, December 15, 1900: After throwing 3,748 innings in nine seasons, Rusie had 22 innings left in his arm. Mathewson had 373 victories to go. A deal this bad had to be crooked. And it was. 3) Lou Brock with pitchers Jack Spring and Paul Toth from Chicago Cubs to St. Louis Cardinals for pitchers Ernie Broglio and Bobby Shantz and outfielder Doug Clemens, June 15, 1964: Broglio went 7-19 in three season with the Cubs, Clemens batted .500 for the Cubs (.279 in 1964 and .221 in 1965), and 39-year-old Shantz lasted 20 games before finishing his career with Philadelphia later that season. With St. Louis, Hall of Famer Brock batted .297, scored 1,427 runs, stole 888 bases, and sparked the Cards to three pennants. 4) Frank Robinson to Baltimore Orioles from Cincinnati Reds for pitchers Milt Pappas and Jack Baldschun and outfielder Dick Simpson, December 9, 1965: Robinson won the triple crown, MVP, and a World Series ring in his first season with the Orioles, powering the team to four World Series in six years. Pappas and Baldschun combined for a 31-34 record with the Reds, Simpson had 34 hits for Cincinnati and none were still in the majors when Robinson, "an old 30" according to Reds at the time of the trade, retired 10 years later. 5) Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown with catcher Jack O'Neill to Chicago Cubs from St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Jack Taylor and catcher Larry McLean, December 12, 1903: Traded after a 9-13, 2.60 rookie season, Brown went on to win 239 games, reaching 20 victories in six straight seasons, 1906-1911. He ranks among the all-time leaders with a 2.06 ERA, a .649 winning percentage and 57 shutouts, plus three more whitewashings and five complete games in nine World Series starts for the fearsome Cubs of the century's first decade. Taylor went 44-49 with St. Louis before returning to the Cubs for a 12-3 record in the 1906 pennant drive. O'Neill batted .206 in two seasons with the Cubs, 39 points better than McLean managed for the Cards before being peddled to Cincinnati. 6) Roger Maris with shortstop Joe DeMaestri and first baseman Kent Hadley to New York Yankees from Kansas City Athletics for outfielders Hank Bauer and Norm Siebern and pitcher Don Larsen, December 11, 1959: Siebern hit at least .272 in each of his four seasons at KC with a top of .308, and Bauer became the A's manager in 1961. DeMaestri went 14 for 76 with four RBIs in two seasons and Hadley hit .203 in 64 at-bats with the Yankees. So far, so good, even if Larsen was 2-10 for the A's. But Maris won back-to-back MVP awards for the Yankees and hit 203 homers in seven seasons while playing marvelously in right field. 7) Ferguson Jenkins with outfielders Adolfo Phillips and John Herrnstein to Chicago Cubs from Philadelphia Phillies for pitchers Larry Jackson and Bob Buhl, April 21, 1966: It looked like a steal for the Phils in 1966 as Jackson won 15 and Buhl added six while Jenkins struggled to a 6-8 mark. But the Phillies' pair of pitchers were long retired when Jenkins rolled up the last of six straight 20-win seasons for Chicago. In nine-plus Cub campaigns, Jenkins tallied 167 wins, on his way to a career total of 284. 8) Grover Cleveland Alexander and catcher Bill Killefer to Chicago Cubs from Philadelphia Phillies for pitcher Iron Mike Prendergast and catcher Pickles Dillhoefer, December 11, 1917: The Phillies got the better nicknames but the Cubs got the better deal. Uncertainty over the draft status of ballplayers during World War One precipitated the trade, and Alexander was lost for most of the 1918 season. He returned to log 128 wins in just over seven seasons in Chicago before moving to St. Louis. Prendergast was 13-15 in two seasons with the Phils and Dillhoefer hit .223 in five years of part-time duty. 9) Nolan Ryan with pitcher Don Rose, outfielder Leroy Stanton and catcher Francisco Estrada to California Angels from New York Mets for shortstop Jim Fregosi, December 10, 1971: The Mets acquired Fregosi to answer their perpetual problem at third base, a position Fregosi had never played in the majors: strike one. Fregosi batted .233 in 146 games for the Mets: strike two. The Mets gave up Nolan Ryan . . . 10) Ron Perranoski with third baseman John Goryl, minor league outfielder Lee Handley and $25,000 to Los Angeles Dodgers from Chicago Cubs for third baseman Don Zimmer, April 8, 1960: The Dodgers got a dominant reliever for the better part of a decade, a useful Triple A player, and mad money for Walter O'Malley. The Cubs got a third baseman who would one day manage them. Dishonorable Mention: P Steve Carlton to Phillies from Cardinals for P Rick Wise, '72; 1B Orlando Cepeda to Cards from Giants for P Ray Sadecki, '66; CF Curt Flood with OF Joe Taylor to Cardinals from Reds for P Marty Kutyna and P Ted Wieand, '57; 2B Nellie Fox to White Sox from A's for C Joe Tipton, '49; 1B Jimmie Foxx with P Johnny Marcum to Red Sox from A's for P Gordon Rhodes, C George Salvino, and $150,000, '35; OF-INF Pedro Guerrero to Dodgers from Indians for P Bruce Ellingsen, '74; 1B Keith Hernandez to Mets from Cardinals for P Neil Allen and P Rick Ownbey, '83; C Ernie Lombardi with OF Babe Herman and 3B Wally Gilbert to Reds from Dodgers for 2B Tony Cuccinello, 3B Joe Stripp, and C Clyde Sukeforth, '32; P Sparky Lyle to Yankees from Red Sox for 1B-OF Danny Cater, '72; CF Willie McGee to Cardinals from Yankees for P Bob Sykes, '81; P Mike Marshall to Dodgers from Expos for OF Willie Davis, '73; OF George Foster to Reds from Giants for SS Frank Duffy and P Vern Geishert, '71; P Gaylord Perry with SS Frank Duffy (what's with this guy?) to Indians from Giants for P Sam McDowell, '71; P Jeff Reardon with OF Dan Norman to Expos from Mets for OF Ellis Valentine, '81; 2B Ryne Sandberg with SS Larry Bowa to Cubs from Phillies for SS Ivan DeJesus, '82; P Tom Seaver to Reds from Mets for P Pat Zachry, 2B Doug Flynn, OF Steve Henderson and OF Dan Norman, '77; 1B Glenn Davis to Orioles from Astros for P Pete Harnisch, P Curt Schilling, and OF Steve Finley, '91. Brains for Brawn In addition to trading for help on the field, teams sometimes seek aid in the dugout. Although the trade of Detroit's Jimmy Dykes for Cleveland's Joe Gordon in the middle of the 1960 season remains the only manager-for-manager swap, teams have gone to the trade-mart for leadership 13 times. - Second baseman Buck Herzog traded by Giants to Reds as player-manager with catcher Grover Hartley for outfielder Bob Bescher, December 12, 1913. - Christy Mathewson traded by Giants to Reds as manager with outfielder Edd Roush and infielder Bill McKechnie for outfielder Red Killefer and ex-manager Buck Herzog, July 20, 1916--Mathewson activated himself for a final start against old rival Three-Finger Brown. - Shortstop Dave Bancroft traded by Giants to Boston Braves as player-manager with outfielders Casey Stengel and Bill Cunningham for pitcher Joe Oeschger and outfielder Billy Southworth, November 12, 1923. - Player-manager Bucky Harris traded by Senators to Tigers for infielder Jack Warner to succeed George Moriarty at Detroit, December 19, 1928. - Catcher Jimmie "Ace" Wilson traded by Cardinals to Phillies as player-manager for catcher Spud Davis and second baseman Eddie Delker, November 15, 1933. - Catcher Mickey Cochrane traded by Athletics to Tigers as player-manager for catcher Johnny Pasek and $100,000, December 12, 1933. Black Mike led the Tigers to a pennant by seven games over the Yankees and took the Cardinals to seven games in the World Series in 1934. In 1935, he became the first traded manager to garner a world championship as the Tigers downed the Cubs in six. - Catcher Bob O'Farrell traded by Cardinals to Reds as player-manager with pitcher Syl Johnson for pitcher Glenn Spencer, January 11, 1934. - Second baseman Eddie Stanky by Giants to Cards as player-manager for pitcher Max Lanier (Hal's dad) and outfielder Chuck Diering, December 11, 1951. - Second baseman Solly Hemus traded by Phillies to Cardinals as player-manager for third baseman Gene Freese, September 29, 1958. - First baseman Gil Hodges traded by Mets to Senators as manager for outfielder Jimmy Piersall, May 23, 1963. - Manager Gil Hodges traded by Senators to Mets for pitcher Bill Denehy and $100,000, November 27, 1968. Hodges became the first non-playing manager acquired in a trade to win a world championship with the 1969 Amazin's. - Manager Chuck Tanner traded by A's to Pirates for catcher Manny Sanguillen and $100,000, November 5, 1976. Tanner also won a world championship for his new team. The Pirates actually kept some of the cash in the Tanner deal as the A's purchased Buc infielder Tommy Helms on the same date. Helms was returned to Pittsburgh that spring with infielder Phil Garner and pitcher Chris Batton in one of Finley's finest heists, the A's acquiring pitchers Rick Langford, Doc Medich, Doug Bair, and Dave Guisti plus outfielders Mitchell Page and Tony Armas. - First baseman Pete Rose traded by Expos to Reds as player-manager for infielder Tom Lawless, August 16, 1984.