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SoCal Pinstriper
09-17-07, 12:48 PM
“Toots,” a documentary about legendary Big Apple barman Toots Shor that will open in Boston next month, contains a fascinating piece of Red Sox (http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/baseball/red_sox/index.bg) [team stats (http://scores.heraldinteractive.com/merge/tsnform.aspx?c=bostonherald&page=mlb/teams/028/teamstats.aspx?team=028)]-Yankees (http://www.bostonherald.com/search/?topic=Yankees) trivia that could have altered baseball history. Seems then-Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey and former Yankees owner Dan Topping got hammered in Toots’ joint one night and decided to swap Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams. They even shook on it. The next morning, Yawkey realized his mistake and called Topping, who now had second thoughts himself, and the whole thing was off. http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1032017
Snatch Catch
09-17-07, 12:54 PM
Isn't this a relatively well known fact?
ymike673
09-17-07, 12:57 PM
http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view.bg?articleid=1032017

That "almost" trade story has been around for years. Given that Joe D only played a few more seasons and Williams played untill 1960, had the trade been made it would have been considered today as one of the worst deals in Sox history. Could you imagine Williams and Mantle in the same outfield?
Nome
09-17-07, 02:51 PM
It has been around for many years and I have heard it for so many times and from so many people that I believe it to be true.

I believe it happened in 1949. Yankee Stadium favored Left handed hitters and Fenway favored right handed hitters.
It is believeable that after a night of drinking and playing the roles of big shot owners such a trade might have been brought up.

But thank god it never happened. Ted would have been great in YS but both players deserved to end their careers where they started.

Andy
Steve J. Rogers
09-23-07, 10:20 AM
It has been around for many years and I have heard it for so many times and from so many people that I believe it to be true.

I believe it happened in 1949. Yankee Stadium favored Left handed hitters and Fenway favored right handed hitters.
It is believeable that after a night of drinking and playing the roles of big shot owners such a trade might have been brought up.

But thank god it never happened. Ted would have been great in YS but both players deserved to end their careers where they started.

Andy

Is this the same Williams-DiMaggio trade that also would have included Yogi Berra, but Topping balked at giving up Yogi? Or is that a different one?
In Mo I Trust
09-23-07, 10:41 AM
The story I've heard included Yogi.
jimmyclark
10-06-07, 09:30 AM
The almost trade would have been in 1946 -47 since it was Tom Yawkey and Larry MacPhail drinking one night. MacPhail left the Yankees after they won the world series in 1947. When they sobered up both realized they didn't need to make the trade.
fredgmuggs
10-06-07, 09:32 AM
Isn't this a relatively well known fact?That's my immediate reaction.
Nome
10-06-07, 10:34 AM
[quote=fredgmuggs]That's my immediate reaction.[/quote


I am nor sure if it is a documented fact, but only someone who was there at the time can say for sure.I am fairly certain that it is a fact based on all the rerports I have heard.

Andy
Soriambi
10-06-07, 11:50 AM
They talk about this in one of the Yankeeographies. (I forget whether it was DiMaggio's or a general Yankee one or whatever.) The version that they tell in Yankeeography did not include Berra.
BillBuckner
10-06-07, 12:29 PM
They talk about this in one of the Yankeeographies. (I forget whether it was DiMaggio's or a general Yankee one or whatever.) The version that they tell in Yankeeography did not include Berra.
I'm pretty sure it was DiMaggio's. It's hard to imagine something like this happening today.
jimmyclark
10-08-07, 12:03 PM
That "almost" trade story has been around for years. Given that Joe D only played a few more seasons and Williams played untill 1960, had the trade been made it would have been considered today as one of the worst deals in Sox history. Could you imagine Williams and Mantle in the same outfield?

DiMaggio was only 4 years older than Williams. Williams did play for 9 more years so he either took better care of himself or was just lucky. If DiMggio could have brought the Red Sox one or two championships (1948, 1949 or 1950) it would have been worth it. Plus Mantle did alright with Woodling, Bauer, Noren, Howard, etc. How they could have replaced Yogi (Silvestri, Houk?) is debatable.
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