[BluesDuke]

Actually, I have to amend one comment - the Yankees didn't exactly get a no name for Lew Burdette. Burdette was a kind-of throw in in a deal by which the Boston Braves sent the Yankees Johnny Sain (as in, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain") for $50,000 and Burdette, then a Yankee prospect. Sain put some useful time in with the Bombers (he was pennant insurance in that 1951 deal) and later became a respected pitching coach. (Respected by his players, that is - Sain was one of those coaches whose nasty habit of telling it straight didn't sit well with baseball's old-time baronage.) But I still think ridding themselves of Burdette was a dumb move.

[tallhappy]

Bo Belinsky died a few months ago.

The Templeton trade was more a deal to get rid of a troublemaking player than one to get a better player.

Templeton was a 21 year old great fielding shortstop, switch hitter, who hit .320 or so in 1977 or 78 (I don't remember which was his rookie year). That was when .320 meant something. That'd be at least .350 today.

But he became a head case and one day flipped off the crowd who booed him.

Whitey Herzog wasn't about to keep him after that. It was like the Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen trade. Allen had a few good games for St Louis, but Herzog wasn't going to keep a drug addict.

Ozzie turned out better than anyone ever could have guessed. But, then again, it was Herzog and if anyone knew, it would have been him.