Thursday, April 24, 2008

April 25 is Mets Harry Chiti Day

Forty six years ago, Harry Chiti became the answer to dubious baseball trivial question. Harry Chiti is the only baseball player ever traded... for himself!

On April 25, 1962, the expansion NY Mets traded for a Cleveland Catcher named Harry Chiti for a player to be named later and cash. When it time for the Mets to give Cleveland their "player to be named later" on June 15, the Mets sent the Indians. . . Harry Chiti!

This either says that Chiti was so bad, that a team which would lose 120 games didn't even want him. Or, this says the Mets had no idea what they were doing.

Just think, if the Mets had kept Chiti... maybe they could have only lost 117 games or so that year!?! :-)

Chiti began with the Chicago Cubs when he was 17, put his career on hold to serve in the Korean War, and is a .238 lifetime hitter with 41 home runs.

You can find some old Bowman and Topps cards on eBay of Harry Chiti (although at the time I was writing this, I couldn't find any). I think there are also some autograph cards out there too.

Celebrate Harry Chiti day!

3 comments:

Troy said...

More importantly, today is Hooters' 25th anniversary!!!!

Now which one do you really want to celebrate?

I rest my case.

James said...

I'm pretty sure there are a few other blogs that are dedicated to Hooters!

LaLoosh said...

But don't you have pay for those dedicated to Hooters?