November 1966
through October 1967
(1) New York Mets
traded Lou Klimchock and Ernie Bowman to the Cleveland Indians for Floyd Weaver (Oct 12, 1966)
(2) New York Mets traded Ron Hunt and Jim Hickman to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Tommy Davis and Derrell Griffith. (Nov 29, 1966)
(3) New York Mets traded Dennis Ribant and Gary Kolb to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Don Cardwell and Don Bosch (Dec 06, 1966)
(4) New York Mets traded Derrell Griffith to the Houston Astros for Sandy Alomar (Mar 24, 1967)
(5) New York Mets traded Ed Bressoud and Danny Napoleon to the St. Louis Cardinals for Jerry Buchek, Art Mahaffey and Tony Martinez (Apr 01, 1967)
(6) New York Mets
traded Larry Elliot to the Kansas City Athletics for Ed Charles (May 10, 1967)
(7) New York Mets
traded Jack Hamilton to the California Angels for Nick Willhite (Jun 10, 1967)
(8) New York Mets
traded John Stephenson and Rob Gardner to the Chicago Cubs for BobHendley (Jun 12, 1967)
(9) New York Mets
traded Al Yates to the Boston Red Sox for Dennis Bennett (Jun 24, 1967)
(10) New York Mets
traded Chuck Hiller to the Philadelphia Phillies for Phil Linz (Jul 11, 1967)
(11) New York Mets
traded Jack Lamabe to the St. Louis Cardinals for Al Jackson (Jul 16, 1967)
(12) New York Mets
traded Ken Boyer and Sandy Alomar to the Chicago White Sox for J.C. Martin and
Bill Southworth (Jul 22, 1967)
(13) New York Mets
traded Hawk Taylor to the California Angels for Don Wallace (Jul 24, 1967)
Trivia: Sandy Alomar went on to a 15 year career, but the when the Mets traded for him he was a 23 year old infielder that couldn't hit. His Mets career ended with a robust hitting line of 0 for 22 with a run scored (and no walks). Yup, 22 plate appearances and a .000 OPS or -100 OPS+. His run scored was after he was inserted as a pinch runner.
Lou Klimchock somehow played in 12 different years in the Major Leagues and completed his career with a -2.6 WAR. That must be hard to do, although it was probably easier in the sixties.
I first learned that Jack Lamade and Hawk Taylor were baseball players recently while sorting through some newly acquired 1968 baseball cards. Neither was on the Mets for their '68 card and because the names were unusual I remembered them when I was typing up this segment. There might be more in the early Mets years that I learn about from baseball cards.
Ron Hunt was known for getting hit by pitch. He was hit 41 times while he played with the Mets, but he didn't really play in traffic until he got to Montreal. With the Expos, he was plunked 110 time in his 4 years there, including 50 in 1971. Hunt ended up with more Hit By Pitch than doubles in his career, and accumulated 32.7 WAR doing it.
It turns out Don Cardwell had a better career than I ever knew. I knew he was part of the 1969 staff, but he had quite a long career and ended with 16.7 WAR. He led the NL in games started with 38 in 1961 for the Cubs.
Ed Charles went out the right way - not many players retire a World Champions, but Charles' last career at-bat was in the 1969 World Series.
Rob Gardner was one of out 'local' guys, from Binghamton, NY. There have only been a few players from this upstate area to play in the majors and Gardner was the first one I remember when I started following the game in 1969.
Seems like Bill Southworth is a good place to end this today. Southworth accumulated +0.2 WAR in his career consisting of 7 at bats and 2 hits, including a homer. All of his MLB at bats were before he turned 19 years old.
8 comments:
I always considered Hunt the best Mets second baseman ever.
Cardwell was quite a good pitcher for the weak hitting Mets. Lots of CGs. A horse.
That Davis trade later turned into Tommie Agee - not shabby.
I remember Ron Hunt with the Expos, as I didn't follow baseball until 1971. I remember that he choked up on the bat so much that he gripped it almost on the trademark. His hands had to be in the strike zone with his swing.
Talking baseball with a trivia nut friend the other day.
I mentioned the Larry Elliot/Ed Charles trade as the only one I could think of involving only first names.
Stumped him too (And this guy had a list of plays with the same name as their home town...George Turbyville, from Turbyville OH for example)..
Back in those losing days the trades certainly seemed to reflect the negative outcome of games. There were a lot of giveaways of decent players and not much positive came back. The Tommy Davis transactions didn't seem to make any sense. He hit .302 in his one year for the Mets and then went on to hit .284 for the remainder of his career which ran until 1976. He was only 28 when the Mets got him and tossed him aside. I'd like to know the real story behind that. Getting Tommie Agee and Al Weis back as part of a big number of players changing uniforms was not bad, but to be truthful Agee wasn't the player that Davis was and Al Weiss was the Doug Flynn of his day.
Reese, I wondered about that David trade in the same light. Why did the Dodgers trade him to begin with, and why did he not last more than a year or two with anybody after that?
R69, I seem to remember Tommy Davis had torn his achilles, and he hit terrifically for a few months and then started to struggle physically. He had that year in 1962 where he ended up 3rd in MVP voting despite hitting .346 with 153 RBIs!!!!! Wow.
Mack, we've been in a hunt for another Hunt ever since. Anyone who made an art form put of getting plunked was TOUGH!
Post a Comment