After having some success with his pre-Mickey Mouse “Alice” series of cartoons Walt Disney went on to create a character named “Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.” It was a moderately successful series, but Walt was as naive a businessman as he was talented as an artist. Having thought that he owned the rights to Oswald, he was in for a bitter shock when he discovered that the rights were actually owned by someone else When he tried to renegotiate his contract, Oswald was taken away from him and ended up in the hand of Walter Lantz. It did teach him a lesson; in the future Disney would be almost anal about retaining ownership of all his product.
Didn’t I say that this was about sports?
Well, in one of the best and weirdest sports trades ever, Disney has ceeded ABC’s contract with Al Michaels in trade for the return of the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from NBC Universal.
There are rumors that since Disney had recently become more interested in it’s pre-Mickey output that we may finally see some of Disney’s Oswald shorts on DVD in the future.
In 1962 the Indians traded catcher Harry Chiti, and in 1987 the Cubs traded pitcher Dickie Noles, both for players to be named later. After the seasons ended, they were both sent back to their original teams to complete the trades. Thus, they were traded for themselves.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that right after the Noles’ “trade,” MLB banned such deals since they amounted to a de facto loan-outs.
I don’t know if this is all that weird but about three years ago the Seattle Mariners received outfielder Randy Winn from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in exchange for their manager Lou Piniella. You don’t often see managers (or coaches) as part of a deal between teams.
Although perhaps a great example of this was the compensation the Raiders received for letting head coach Jon Gruden go to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1st and 2nd round draft choices in 2002, 1st rounder in 2003, and a 2nd rounder in 2004 plus about 8 million in cash). The called it “compensation” but it was tantamount to a trade with the Bucs making out a bit better.
True - even stranger was the time when two teams traded managers outright. In 1961, manager Joe Gordon of the Indians was traded to the Detroit Tigers for manager Jimmy Dykes.
In order to obtain to draft Bill Russell the Celtics finagled trades that involved the Ice Capades.
Rochester had the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft that year and St. Louis had the No. 2 pick. Rochester agreed not to draft Russell in exchange for 2 weeks worth of shows from the Ice Capades, which were owned by Walter Brown who also owned the Celtics. The Ice Capades were a popular act and the Rochester owner wanted something that would sell a lot of tickets, which the Ice Capades did. The Celtics then traded Ed McCauley and Walter Hagen to St. Louis for their No. 2 pick, which the Celtics used to draft Russell.
There was once a Mets player who was traded for himself. But not as interesting as a sportscaster being traded for a rabbit. I was wondering if someone was going to comment on this.
Lantz would stay at Universal for many years, supervising an eclectic group of now-classic cartoon characters, led by- ha-ha-he-HA-ha!- Woody Woodpecker.
Apparently, Disney’s interest in obtaining Oswald was piqued after Bob Iger read a story on Jerry Beck’s website about Universal licensing Oswald plush toys in Japan. Disney wanted in on this foriegn market, but may do something with Oswald over here as well.
Back in the early 90’s the Braves had a catcher named Greg Olson. He was an integral part of the 91 Braves World Series team. A few years later, Olson was taken out by an injury and moved back to his native Minnesota. Olson later took over as manager of the Minnesota Loons, and traded the Braves reliever Kerry Ligtenberg for a bag of bats and balls and maybe $100.
My personal favorite trade involved the Detroit Red Wings getting the now reigning Selke trophy winner and member of the Canadian Olympic team Kris Draper for $1.
Another great classic trade: **Ernie Harwell ** the HOF announcer for Detroit was traded from a minor league club to the Dodgers.
In 1948, **Ernie Harwell ** became the only announcer in baseball history to be traded for a player when the Brooklyn Dodgers’ General Manager, Branch Rickey, traded catcher **Cliff Dapper ** to the Crackers in exchange for breaking Harwell’s broadcasting contract.
I’ll look around, but that I think that was a compensation thing, not a straight-up trade. That’s happening more and more often as coaches appear to have the same regard for contracts as players do. Most recently, the NY Jets let head coach Herman Edwards go to Kansas City for a fourth-round draft pick.
Well, only half of the foursome went through with the trade. Fritz Peterson married Kekich’s wife, and they’re still together. But Kekich split up with Peterson’s wife shortly after the swap, and they never married.
Walter Hagen was a golfer – the man who accompanied McCauley to St. Louis was Cliff Hagan. This thread from a Celtics forum contains an interesting discussion of the trade – see especially Post #5 for an explanation of why the Hawks’ front office felt Russell never could have played for St. Louis during the 1950’s.
It also happened in the 60s when the Mets traded pitcher Bill Dennehy for Gil Hodges to manage. Worked out well for the Mets; Dennehy’s only claim to fame is the very high value of his rookie card – I’ve seen it for over $300 on eBay just yesterday. Of course, it helped that it was also Tom Seaver’s rookie card (Topps used to double up on some cards).
The Harry Chiti for Harry Chiti trade was with the Mets, too.
Most recently, the NY Jets let head coach Herman Edwards go to Kansas City for a fourth-round draft pick.