Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive

Free Bonus for Subscribing:

Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide

Get new posts by email

We all can recall some lopsided trades, but absolutely “crazy trades”? In Ron Christensen’s essay today, we learn of players being traded for donuts, for a suit of clothes, in payment for rent…and the proverbial “player traded for himself”! In the featured photo, we see Lefty Grove, the subject of one of these “crazy trades.” Check out Ron’s essay. I think you’ll find it amusing!

Get A Load of These Crazy Baseball Trades!

What Were They Thinking??

Trading for players in baseball is part of the game, as common as wind in Chicago.  A trade is essentially a business decision, intended in some way to better the team and improve its chances for a championship.  The genesis, negotiation, and ultimate execution of a trade is a process conducted in front office executive suites and ivory-tower conference rooms, typically with a team of baseball talent including analysts, statisticians, scouts, lawyers, financial consultants, and yes, even team owners and general managers.

Gone are the days when deals were made in seedy, smoke-filled back-rooms and negotiated in hushed tones over shared liquor and cigars.  Here the art of the deal was simpler, offered less pressure, and was often concluded with a handshake rather than the signing in triplicate of inch-thick documents with Montblanc pens. 

Which is the more effective, or even the more fun process?  Who’s to say.  Either way, in the end, there have been winners and losers, and trades that broke even.  Some were unexpected, while others were long overdue.  There have been head-scratchers and trades that were welcomed.  And there have been doozies.  Yes, doozies.  The crazy trades.  The ones that leave you laughing or shaking your head in disbelief, questioning ‘Did this really happen?  What were they thinking?’   Let’s look at a few.

In 1930 Texas, Julius Schepps owned a bakery.  He and his brother George also owned the Texas Steers of the Texas League and were in the market for an infielder.  They set their sights on Len Dondero of the San Antonio Indians and approached San Antonio owner Homer Hammonds, offering him a dozen donuts from Julius’s bakery in exchange for Dondero.  And guess what!  While Hammonds and the Schepps brothers ate the donuts, Hammonds accepted the deal!  Fortunately for Dondero, Texas League officials didn’t, and the trade was disallowed.  Must’ve been some really good donuts!

In his first year of professional baseball in 1890, Denton Young (you might know him by his nickname, “Cy”) was pitching for the Canton Nadjys (the name refers to a breed of horse) of the Tri-State League when he was traded to the Cleveland Spiders, a team in need of a pitcher.  Cleveland owner Frank Robison saw potential in Young, and because the Canton club was in dire financial straits, was able to secure his services in exchange for the sum of $300 and a new suit of clothes for Canton Manager James Harmon.  Not a bad deal for the man who would go on to win 511 games over a 22-year career!  I’m sure the suit didn’t last nearly as long as the career did.

At the end of the 1907 season, the Boston Americans (soon to be Red Sox) bought the contract of Tris Speaker from the Houston Mud Cats of the Texas League.  With seven days remaining in the season, Speaker hit a paltry .158.  Unimpressed, the Red Sox didn’t offer him a contract for 1908, so Speaker paid his own way to the Red Sox training camp in Little Rock, Arkansas.  He played well enough in spring training to earn himself another contract, but when the Red Sox broke camp, they decided not to take Speaker with them.  Instead, they assigned his contract to the Little Rock Travelers of the Southern Association, the team whose baseball field the Sox had been using during spring training.  Yep, Speaker was traded to the Travelers as payment for use of their field.  There was one stipulation, however.  The Red Sox retained the option to repurchase Speaker’s contract if he developed into a good ballplayer.  He did, and after one season in Little Rock, the Red Sox bought Speaker’s contract for $500.  Imagine, a future Hall of Famer being traded for rent!

Lefty Grove was at the start of his Hall of Fame career in 1920, pitching for the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Blue Ridge League, when he came to the attention of Jack Dunn, owner of the Baltimore Orioles and the man who had discovered Babe Ruth several years earlier.  A storm that summer had leveled the outfield fence on the Martinsburg ball field, giving Dunn an idea – one he ‘pitched’ to the Mountaineers (pun intended).  For the cost of Dunn replacing the fence, the Mountaineers agreed to trade Grove to the Orioles.  Grove would later say that he was the only player ever traded for a fence.  Strange, but true!

Finally, there’s Harry Chiti, the first major league player ever traded for….himself!  Chiti, a catcher with the Cleveland Indians, was traded on April 25, 1962, to the New York Mets for a player to be named later.  Over 15 games with the Mets, Chiti batted only .195.  Even the first year expansion Mets, one of worst teams in baseball, had doubts about Chiti, and on June 15 sent him back to the Indians as the player to be named later. Remarkably, this has since happened three other times.!

Crazy trades.  It makes you wonder, ‘What were they thinking??’ 

Ron Christensen

REFERENCES:

1. Wikipedia – Canton Nadjys
2. Wikipedia – Harry Chiti
3. com – The 10 Strangest Trades in Baseball History, by Anthony Castrovince
4. com – Cy Young Once Traded For Clothing, by Andrew Martin
5. Encyclopedia of Arkansas – Tris Speaker, by William H. Pruden III
6. SABR – Tris Speaker, by Don Jensen
7. New England Historical Society – Lefty Grove Is Traded For A Fence
8. Appalachian History.net – The Only BB Player Ever Traded For A Fence, by Dave Tabler
9. com – The 1930 Texas League
10. com – 1907 Texas League Leaders

We’d love to hear what you think about this or any other related baseball history topic…please leave comments below.

Gary Livacari 

Subscribe to Baseball History Comes Alive. FREE BONUS for subscribing: Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide.  https://wp.me/P7a04E-2he

Information: Excerpts edited from

Visit the Baseball History Comes Alive Home Page