Every December the general managers of every Major League Baseball team in America and Canada gather for their annual winter meetings. The Topic of the most interest is TRADING players to fill the needs of their respective teams of the years’ past. Since the beginning of professional baseball TRADES have been a large part of the charm of the game. No other sport has the same notoriety baseball brings to the table. Football, Basketball and Hockey do have their moments, however baseball has the TRADING deadline frenzy to fill in holes driving to the playoffs.

Some teams mortgage their future stars just to have a chance at the elusive World Series Ring. TRADES like Babe Ruth for Willie Mays are rare, mostly being journeyman to stop the bleeding of a gaping hole. Some of the most notable TRADES were before the free agent bonanza of the seventies i.e. Frank Robinson from Cincinnati to Baltimore in mid 60’s….Jackie Robinson from the Dodgers to the Giants in the mid 50’s that was nullified when Jackie decided to retire before the deal could be consummated.

Today with the multi million dollar contracts baseball TRADING has been stymied by the fact that the players control their destiny because of (no TRADE) clauses in player contracts.

TRADE rumors start building steam around the All Star break gaining momentum until the stroke of midnite July 31. The media has a field day and often fabricate their own potential TRADES that gives fans of the game reason to hope for that Cinderella finish line.

Sometime teams that know that they are having to shell out large player salaries for a lost season will have fire sales TRADING their superstars for highly touted prospects.

TRADING baseball players is something all baseball fans look forward to with eager anticipation of that pot of gold at seasons end. Take it from TRADER Jack McKeon of the Padres of the mid 80’s. a colorful savvy General Manager is always thinking about TRADING.

You can bet this year (2008) the Yankees will have plenty to trade considering they are in last place and have to appease the fans of New York who expect them to be in the World Series every year.

Stay tuned baseball fans things are heating up already.

Art Kaliel
ITEX San Diego

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 9:18 am and is filed under Professional Athletics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.