Remembering the Sutcliffe Trade & The Conlon Collection

Chris Jaffe at The Hardball Times takes a look back at the 30th Anniversary of the trade that sent former Rookie of the Year winner Rick Sutcliffe to the Indians for a bunch of players who ended up not doing much for us. I think, though, he discounts, too heavily, the impact of Jack Fimple (who came to us as a part of that deal). Jack will always live in Dodger lore. Anyway, here's a snippet of his story.

In return for Sutcliffe, LA got a whole bunch of nothing. Fimple and White both made the majors, but neither ever amounted to anything. Orta had been and would later be a good hitter, but he suffered through the worst year of his career in 1982. He batted .217 in 86 games for the Dodgers that year, his only with the team.

In fact, LA’s return was so meager that the other guy they gave up, Perconte, clearly outclassed the trio of players that came to the Dodgers. Perconte didn’t do too much for the Indians, but in 1984 earned the full-time starting job at second base for the Mariners, and proceeded to hit .294 (albeit with zero homers). He immediately declined after that, but one good season is still more than Fimple, White, and Orta had with the Dodgers.

Ahhh... just another great Dodger trade.

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Everyone must go to this site right now. Rogers Photo Archive has been compiling, researching and digitizing a giant collection (some 8400 images) of vintage photographs from the fabled Baseball photographer Charles M. Conlon. High quality prints are available for purchase, but even if you don't plan on buying anything you should just go there to look around. It's great stuff and a museum in and of itself. Conlon is the preeminent Baseball photographer and pretty much invented the artform. See it here at: The Conlon Collection. Below is a pic of Fred Merkle in Dodger Blue.

(Hat Tip: Sports Collectors Daily)