Player Traded for 10 Baseball Bats

Player Traded for 10 Baseball Bats
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN,
AP
Posted: 2008-05-23 17:58:42

McALLEN, Texas (May 23) - Even though small independent baseball leagues notoriously try to draw fans with promotions like "vasectomy night" and "midget wrestling," these two teams had good reason to swap a right-handed pitcher for 10 bats.

The Calgary Vipers of the Golden Baseball League couldn't get newly signed pitcher John Odom into Canada for immigration reasons. And the Laredo Broncos of the United League were willing to take a cheap gamble on a pitcher.

Oh, and the Vipers really, really wanted some new bats.

And so Odom, about a month after being acquired by a Canadian team, found himself Tuesday on the roster of a team on the Mexican border. All for the price of 10 Prairie Sticks Maple Bats, double-dipped black 34-inch C243 style.

"They just wanted some bats, good bats - maple bats," Broncos General Manager Jose Melendez said Friday.

According to the Prairie Sticks Web site, their maple bats retail for $69 a piece, discounted to $65.50 for purchases of six to 11 bats.

The Vipers had signed Odom, but it seems Odom had a "minor," but unspecified, criminal record that he did not reveal to immigration officials before they scanned his passport, Vipers President Peter Young said.

Calgary found the Broncos were willing to take Odom, but the Vipers weren't interested in any of the Laredo players. Plus, it would have cost Calgary $1,000 to fly any new player in from Laredo. Laredo offered cash, but Young said that was "an insult." (:haha:)

The bat trade wasn't the first time Calgary tried some creative deal-making. The Vipers once tried to acquire a pitcher for 1,500 blue seats when they were renovating their field, Young said.

As for Odom - who did not immediately return a call for comment - he's scheduled to be activated Monday. And he'll get his first start Wednesday, Melendez said.

"It will be interesting to see what 10 bats gets us," he said.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

omg

:haha:

No Way!


You guys putting me on?

That's Funny!

:haha: that is too funny

Sheffield Almost Traded for the 10 Bats
AP
Posted: 2008-05-23 17:46:13

DETROIT, Michigan (May 24) - General Manager Dave Dombrowski recently admitted that Sheffield was almost traded to Laredo Broncos of the United League for 10 maple baseball bats. "We tried to get equal value for him and we thought this was our best option," Dombrowski told reporters.

"We got greedy and asked for a bag of baseballs to be named later," continued Dombrowski explaining why the deal didn't go through. "He [Sheffield] was heating up the last few days and so I asked for a little more in return." Sheffield went 3-4 on Thursday and hit a home run yesterday.

"The bats were expendable, but the bag of balls is off limits," Broncos general manager Jose Melendez said. "I'm trying to build a championship-caliber team here. I can't just ship key parts like their pieces of equipment. If The Tigers need a bag of balls they are going to have to find another place to get them."

The bats and balls were not available for comment.

Dombrowski didn't deny anymore players for non-life forms in the near future. When asked if the Kenny Rogers for a cooler of Gatorade rumors were true Dombrowski said, "we're looking at every possibility to help improve our ball club." When reporters asked Leyland how he felt of this trade rumor his reply was, "I'm hoping for fruit punch flavored!"


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

bobrob2004 wrote:

"We got greedy and asked for a bag of baseballs to be named later,"

O-M-G...dying...can't breathe...

Great work on that last one bobrob!!!

catbox_9 wrote:

Great work on that last one bobrob!!!

Thanks! I think you wanted me to do a fake article for a while now and I thought this was a good opportunity to do one.

Good Job

I almost believed the way Sheff is performing.

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Great work on that last one bobrob!!!

Thanks! I think you wanted me to do a fake article for a while now and I thought this was a good opportunity to do one.

If you really want to get clever create an HTML page that looks like AOL so you can give a better link. Use tinyurl.com to hide the real link. Then link to AOL from the HTML page. People won't know what hit them!

catbox_9 wrote:

bobrob2004 wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Great work on that last one bobrob!!!

Thanks! I think you wanted me to do a fake article for a while now and I thought this was a good opportunity to do one.

If you really want to get clever create an HTML page that looks like AOL so you can give a better link. Use tinyurl.com to hide the real link. Then link to AOL from the HTML page. People won't know what hit them!

I thought about doing something like that, but I thought it would be too much work.