Game 80 must be sometime in the 1980s -- I guess 1983 -- not 2003. Morgan and Rice long retired by 2003. This is a very enjoyable read, BTW.

Mike Boddicker... This weekend my son was watching the 1996 home run derby on ESPN, and when Brady Anderson was up they mentioned how he was traded to Baltimore by Boston for Mike Boddicker. I guess in mid-1996 the other part of that trade didn't seem worthy of mention, given he only had managed a 45-45 career record by that point. He went 171-101 after that, with six all-star appearances.

Mike Boddicker... This weekend my son was watching the 1996 home run derby on ESPN, and when Brady Anderson was up they mentioned how he was traded to Baltimore by Boston for Mike Boddicker. I guess in mid-1996 the other part of that trade didn't seem worthy of mention, given he only had managed a 45-45 career record by that point. He went 171-101 after that, with six all-star appearances.

By coincidence, this weekend I was watching a Pedro game on NESN from 2000 against the Orioles and they also mentioned that trade when Anderson came up to bat but by then they noted all of the players involved.

I remember seeing a baseball sticker book BITD that had, on a filler page, a list of the best trades (ever) for each team. It actually cited the Boddicker trade as a great one... for Boston.

Just looking back on it using bWAR, and acknowledging the contract status for all involved...

Boddicker: Boston had to give him a 2-year extension to get him to agree to the trade, so let's treat it the same as if he had already signed that extension with Baltimore. Boddicker produced 11.4 bWAR with Boston through the end of that deal.

Anderson: IIRC Anderson's last year under the reserve clause would have been 1994, but he signed a 3-year contract before the 1994 season with a club option for a 4th year. So although he didn't reach free agency until after 1997, what Boston traded was Brady Anderson through 1994. Anderson had 12.3 bWAR through 1994, other than his time with Boston.

Schilling: Likewise, it appears Schilling's first foray into free agency was after 1994, which for him was unfortunate due to injuries and led him to sign a very low contract for 1995. But it ended up being fortunate for him that the lockout and various owner shenanigans associated with it led to a finding of unfair labor practices. His 1995 contract was reinstated to 1994 levels as a result. OK, whatever, 1994 would have been his last year under team control via the reserve clause. Schilling had 9.9 bWAR through 1994, none of it with Boston.

So... Boston gave up 22 WAR to get 11 WAR. Granted, they made the playoffs in 1988 and 1990, with his WAR in both years being greater than their margin of divisional finish. And the bulk of the WAR that Schilling and Anderson provided was in 1992, which if Boston had kept them would have led to being maybe tied for 3rd place, as many as 12 games behind the Blue Jays. So from a what-happened perspective it still looks like a good trade... they gained two division titles in return for finishing last instead of 3rd or 4th. In terms of value, though, it remains an open question whether they could have made a better deal.

Oh man, 1984 on game #80. I toyed with the 2003 game which was Gabe Kapler’s second game with the club and he had a huge game propelling himself to cult hero status. Since I had used 2003 two games previously I decided not to go with that one and the Rice game was a neat thing.

Thanks for the kind words though Karl. It’s a fun little look back.

I think I have been remiss in not crediting baseball-reference for my work on this. The Play Index/Stathead is such a remarkable too. I know the price is going up but for me it’s money well spent.

The star was Kevin Romine who slugged a walk off homer leading off the bottom of the 9th. Romine hit 5 homers in his career and two of them were walk offs. I wonder if that’s the highest percentage among players with more than one career walk off?

Unless you get sick of listing '88 games for the next few editions, his other walk-off game is in the 81-90 group.

The Play Index/Stathead is such a remarkable too.

Someone once called me a remarkable too. I'm starting to think it wasn't a compliment.