traded to the Pirates? Aaarrrggghhhh, Matey! 'tis a cruel, wicked, accursed fate you'd be givin' me here, laddie...5 x 3 lashes with a tattered 1960 Pirates World Series Pennant, and you'll forever dwell among the ghosts...Don Hoak (3b for '60 Pirates), Dickie Groat, Frank Thomas & Billy Virdon and of course, the great Clemente, and ye will see Bill Mazeroski leapin' to the sky roundin' 3rd base but never quite make it to Home plate - forever, ye will...no Law(Verne) will acquit ye, nor Friend(Bob) will ye have...'stead ye will dwell in the cellar of the dank National League Central for all time. And when ye shall raise up a promising young mate from Triple A he'll disappear before your very eyes and his shadow will plague ye as ye watch another such as yerself bobble and kick grounder, misjudge ye pop flies and fail to bunt or strikeout, leaving ye mates marooned forever on the bases, never to score at all...Even Smokey Burgess will fail ye in the clutch...

damn sam, you know your pirates history by gum....thanks, paul

Alvin - Yeah, For some reason at that time of my tender young life I seem to have filled most of the space that was available in my head with Baseball statistics and trivia. And huge portions of it still remain ingrained in my memory all these many eons later. But, hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Current stuff? Naw...maybe If I think REAL hard I might be able to tell you which teams were even in the World Series this last year, but not too many of the players involved. Fortunately for me there was enough capacity to turn almost everything that entered my mind after I was about 18 into pornographic references (I call it " A pornographic memory" - Definition: Being able to remember everything AND automatically turn it into smut/filth. This is really only partially true, my memory is not quite as sharp anymore).

If you're a Hall-of-Famer, the Pirates won't spend what it takes to pay you. Ask Barry Bonds.