Gammons: Revisiting the trade deadline that changed baseball forever
From Peter Gammons at The Athletic on June 20, 2019:
It was a little past noon on June 15, 1976, at the Edgewater-Hyatt House hotel in Oakland. The place was where most teams stayed when they played the A’s, a couple of miles from what was then called The Coliseum, a few years before its seed became known as The Hotel California because it could be heaven or it could be hell. It became so legendary in MLB and NBA annals that there was a room key from the hotel posted on eBay a couple of years ago.
It was a nice day, and some of the A’s coaches had come over and joined friends from Boston, like Don Zimmer and Johnny Pesky and Stan Williams. I was readying to go to the park with Pesky to work out; I loved that park at the time because clubhouse man Steve Vucinich taped my name above a locker and the kid who was later known as M.C. Hammer took care of my clothes and it was a beautiful time of year to shag in the outfield, play pepper, whatever.
Back then, when Gerald Ford was president, June 15 was the trading deadline, but while there were a lot of rumors about Oakland moving the core of its three-time world champion team, no one took them too seriously.
Read the full article here (subscription required): https://theathletic.com/1031986/2019/06/21/gammons-revisiting-the-trade-deadline-that-changed-baseball-forever/
Originally published: June 21, 2019. Last Updated: June 21, 2019.