Baseball's Most Memorable Trades (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Baseball's Most Memorable Trades Gene Carney (bio) Fred Eisenhammer and Jim Binkley. Baseball's Most Memorable Trades. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 1997. 233 pp. Paper, $28.50. The Rest of the Story The off-season trade of Ken Griffey to the Cincinnati Reds was the perfect backdrop for reading Baseball's Most Memorable Trades, a nifty paperback put together a few years too soon to include Junior. Fred Eisenhammer and Jim Binkley have selected twenty-five notable twentieth-century deals and told the story of each. We all know the headlines. But in this collection, we learn the REST of the story. For example, we look at the Reds acquiring a twenty-nine-year-old pitcher with 246 Minor League wins to his credit already, for a Minor Leaguer. Lopsided? You bet. But Amos Rusie's 246-win arm was shot, and he went 0-1 and retired; [End Page 126] Christy Mathewson went on to win 368 games before the Reds got him back (for his last five wins). But did you know Matty almost went to Philadelphia instead of New York? It is amazing how many trades that looked so good for Team A turned out to be a genuine steal for Team B. Who knew Lou Brock would blossom into a Hall of Famer while Ernie Broglio would fizzle? Or that toss-in Ryne Sandberg would outshine both Larry Bowa and Ivan DeJesus, the headliners in that deal? The authors sometimes seem to be out to embarrass the general managers who "masterminded" the trades. George Foster to the Reds for Frank Duffy and Vern Geishert? Looked good to the Giants' brains. But often the media gurus of the day were dead wrong, too, and their quotes are perhaps the most interesting part of the book. I was following baseball when Roger Maris (originally an Indian) was swapped to the Yankees, and when Rocky Colavito was swapped for the Tigers' Harvey Kuenn. But the details are still interesting. I was not following the game when Pirate idol Ralph Kiner was traded to the Cubs in a ten-player (plus cash) deal, and that was even more interesting. The Cubs were in Pittsburgh when the trade was announced—after batting practice. Imagine how the fans reacted, cheering Ralph as he swatted long ones in BP, only to emerge on the field minutes later in a Cub uniform! Who most enjoys recalling such memorable moments as that one in August 1990 when the Red Sox picked up Larry Andersen from Houston for the pennant run? Yes, Jeff Bagwell (who was a New Englander who idolized Yaz) . . . but even more, I bet, lefties Dave Owen, Kevin Morton, and Scott Taylor. Who? Well, the Astros wanted all of them ahead of Bagwell, the Sox's number four third baseman, but were rebuffed. Sometimes great trades are thrust upon teams. It is easy to forget while reading this very entertaining history that real people were involved in the bartering, and for that reason the aftermath of the Curt Flood trade would have made for a nice conclusion. Once Flood stood up and refused to be treated like a slave, like property, the end of an era was near. [End Page 127] Gene Carney Gene ("Two Finger") Carney lives and writes baseball in the Shadows of Cooperstown. He is currently lead-off columnist at baseball..com, and his play Mornings After is now a musical. He has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) since 1991 and enjoys talkin' baseball on the daily SABR-l email discussion list. Copyright © 2000 University of Nebraska Press