Still crazy after all these years

... but I was only 12-years-old  The truth is that trades in any sport can be horrible or wonderful, even if they do not appear to be so on paper. So, in response to my calling the trade of two young Pirates to Tampa Bay last year infamous, I must admit that in 1959, I complained vociferously about a trade the Bucs made. Of course, I was only 12-years-old, and Twitter and other social media did not exist. Yet, I thought that this trade was horrible, and complained to my father, the apparent expert, about it. First, the details. The GM for the Bucs at the time was Joe L. Brown. The Pirates traded right-handed pitcher Whammy Douglas, outfielders Jim Pendleton, and John Powers — along with their only home run power hitter, Frank Thomas — to Cincinnati in Jan. 1959 for catcher Smoky Burgess, third baseman Don Hoak, and left-handed pitcher Harvey Haddix. Frank Thomas was my favorite player, a guy who had just hit 39 home runs and driven in 109 in 1958. He was the best Pirates home run...

… both have led Rays to top of AL-East  As the calendar turned to August last summer, Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington thought that he would prove to the fans that the team did not just give away top players like Gerrit Cole and Andrew McCutcheon. He decided to mortgage the farm and give away some promising young studs. Huntington sent two of his potential prospects, outfielder Austin Meadows and right-handed pitcher Tyler Glasnow, to the Tampa Bay Rays for 30-year-old pitcher Chris Archer, who had been an all-star in his early years. In a July 31 story in the Post-Gazette, Huntington was quoted as saying, “We gave up a lot, but the belief was that this club’s good, but it would also position ourselves to be one of those clubs next year and into the future.” The Bucs thought that Archer, who has not had a winning record since 2014, would return to his earlier prowess and prove to be a mainstay for the team in 2019. The team has been playing respectably thus far, just a fe...