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Turn Back The Clock: February 13th, 1986-Welcome Back Hassey!

By Billy Brost

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Baseball trades can be strange creatures, involving every conceivable way to deal a player, minor leaguers, cash, and sometimes even managers. For example, Joel Youngblood was once traded from the Montreal Expos after he had played a game that day, recorded a base hit, traveled to his new team, the Chicago Cubs, in time to be inserted into the lineup, only to record a hit for his new team THAT SAME DAY! 

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There are a variety of reasons a big league team makes a deal. Depth at a position makes a veteran, who might be making a little more, expendable, thus opening a roster spot for a cheaper version, who has more upside. A player and management might not see eye-to-eye, and sometimes, a team just falls out of contention and looks to the future, and unloads a solid big league player to a team that has a pressing need, and views the player as a necessary piece for depth to help get them over the top.

Another set of examples of some of the strangest trades in big league history? The great Cy Young, the all-time leader in wins with 511, was once dealt to Cleveland, not for a player, not for cash, but a suit. Yep, a suit. Go figure. Something along the lines of the Youngblood deal, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs were involved in a deal for outfielders back in 1922. The teams were in the middle of a doubleheader, when they agreed to swap outfielders Max Flack and Cliff Heathcote. Neither player recorded a knock in Game One of the twinbill, but for their new teams, they went a 3-for-8.

On this day, 29 years ago, the Yankees were involved in a deal, not quite to the extent of receiving a suit, or trading players in the middle of a double header, but it makes you scratch your head and say “Why?” The New York Yankees had Ron Hassey, who was not superstar by any stretch of the imagination. During the ’85 season, Hassey and up and coming catcher Butch Wynegar had split time behind the plate.

Well in December of 1985, the Bombers had dealt Hassey to the Chicago White Sox, most likely to open up more time behind the dish for Wynegar, who had hit only .223 in 1985. Hassey hit a respectable .296 in 92 games. The Yankees in that deal sent Hassey and pitcher Joe Cowley to Chitown, and received Britt Burns and a pair of minor leaguers in return.

But that’s not the strange part of the deal. Two months later–today, 29 years ago, the Yankees made a deal with the White Sox, sending pitcher Neil Allen, catcher/outfielder Scott Bradley and a minor leaguer and getting…wait for it, Ron Hassey and three minor leaguers. Hassey would go on to play in just over 60 games in 1986, the same amount as Butch Wynegar for manager Lou Piniella. Talk about make up your mind already!

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