It was a trade that left ripples throughout the history of baseball. It was May 8, 1975. The Milwaukee Brewers traded their dashing young outfielder, Bob Coluccio, to the Chicago White Sox for Bill Sharp.
I was 11 years old at the time, finishing up the 6th grade. My best friend, Mark Miller, was a huge Bob Coluccio fan. Mills just loved the guy. And suddenly, he was gone, traded to the hated Whities. The effect was devastating, throwing a spanner into the dreams of a young baseball fan. I nearly wept as I saw the heartache my dear friend Mills suffered as he tried to sort out the injustice of it all, the cruel cosmic joke perpetrated by the capricious and inept Brewer front office. Damn, it was bad. Mills even started rooting for the Twins. And in those days that wasn't easy, either.
And it wasn't so good for Coluccio, as the images on the respective baseball cards makes plain. In the uniform of the True Blue Brew Crew, Coluccio looked like a well-scrubbed American Adonis. As a member of the White Sox, Coluccio looked like an extra from an episode of Kojak. Even Coluccio's penmanship went to hell, based on the available evidence. There is a tear in the fabric of sports. And you can date it back to May 8, 1975.
1 comment:
Thanks for bringing up a horrible memory. Next, you're likely to write about the 1972 Redskins. (Mike Bass, Manny Sistrunk, Jerry Smith, etc.).
Seriously, some really good stuff. Great memories.
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