Goldman: The greatest hits of baseball’s bad trade band
From SABR member Steven Goldman at The National Pastime Museum on January 1, 2018:
Almost every band with a career lasting more than 30 seconds will at some point release a greatest hits compilation. Even bands that had not hits but hit, singular, will often scrape together enough tracks to justify an anthology, even if the plural of the title lies somewhere between a misnomer and false advertising. Conversely, if they have enough legitimate or semilegitimate hits for more than one collection they will add additional volumes. Queen lists Volumes I, II, and III in their discography, as do Billy Joel and Elton John.
The Bad Trade Band, having 100 years to cover, goes up to Volume X. In this series, we will survey the worst trades in baseball history. This is necessarily somewhat subjective, as there are far more bad trades than can be economically recounted in even a series of 10 parts. Thus, your favorite worst trade may not be here. Definitions may also vary. For example, you won’t find the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees here, as there was no mistake, no misestimate of a player, no act of self-injuring pique. Rather, two consenting adults consummated a business transaction in which each party understood exactly what it was getting and why. Truly bad trades require misjudgment.
Every two series entries will cycle through the last 100 years by decade, one trade for each period of 10 years beginning in 1910, then begin again until 50 trades have been accounted for.
Read the full article here: https://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/greatest-hits-baseball-s-bad-trade-band-1910-2010-volume-i
Read part two here: https://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/greatest-hits-baseball-s-bad-trade-band-1910-2010-volume-ii
Originally published: January 8, 2018. Last Updated: January 8, 2018.