Quote:
Originally Posted by rico43
Alex Johnson was part of the earliest ioncarnation of the Big Red Machine (circa 1969).
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True, although it's arguable he made his biggest contribution by getting traded, as the Reds got back Pedro Borbon and Jim McGlothlin (who was a useful #4 starter for a few years).
In fact, while it can't be denied the Frank Robinson trade cost the Reds a chance to beat out the Cards in '67 and '68, the fact that they were able to reload so quickly is due to some good trades on the part of Bob Howsam. Milt Pappas went to Atlanta for Clay Carroll and Woody Woodward, and The Perpetually Toolsy Dick Simpson went to St. Louis for Alex, who as noted became Borbon/McGlothlin the next year. Plus the fact that Cincinnati had been willing to take Alex off their hands (Gussie Busch never did like "uppity" black folks, and Alex's standard term of address was "motherf*cker", which could get old quickly, I'll admit) in January of '68 might have contributed to the Cards' seeking out the Reds for that not-even-before-the-champagne-finished-spraying post-World Series trade of Bobby Tolan, Bernie Carbo ("Hey, Bob, if you liked Alex, you'll love Bernie!" Sucker…) and Wayne Simpson for Vada Pinson, which also helped immensely.
Lastly, the trade to the Angels isn't quite as simple as I've made it out to be. It was actually Alex and Chico "Bench Me or Trade Me" Ruiz to the Angels for Borbon, McGlothlin, and Vern Geishert. So the Reds traded Alex with his "best friend" Chico, probably at their request at the time. (Ruiz was godfather to Alex's adopted daughter.) But in the absolute chaos that the Angels' clubhouse descended into during 1971 (written up in one book as the "most toxic atmosphere in baseball history"), the nadir was deterioration of their relationship, with the name-calling (by Johnson) and the challenges to a fight (by Ruiz) climaxing in the June 13 incident where Ruiz pulled a gun on Alex. (Chico originally denied the allegation, but GM Dick Walsh admitted it [despite the "Walsh Says He Saw No Gun" chapter head in the enormous write-up the Angels' chaos got in the 1972
Sporting News Guide, where the first 14 pages of the 44-page annual wrap-up were devoted to the Anaheim "explosion"] during the arbitration case with Johnson the next year.) So the Reds were very lucky to side-step all of that drama, although Chico had been well-enough behaved during his Reds tenure before Alex arrived, by all accounts.
And as for Geishert, let's not forget that by acquiring him, the Reds got the final piece of what would be needed to complete the upcoming Geishert/Frank Duffy for George Foster trade with San Francisco. Not to say that it was Geishert who made the deal necessarily (since the Giants were so cavalier in disposing of their young outfielders in those days that they could easily have traded Foster for a jumbo pack of brats), but still a nice little detail to finish up with.
(By the way, can you imagine any team being stupid enough to trade for the "captain" of those 1971 Angels, who had missed half the season with a leg injury and showed no leadership at all? Not to mention his being hugely overpaid [for 1972 standards] and his new team moving him to 3rd base when he'd never had an arm to begin with? The fact that some idiots gave up a promising young outfielder like Leroy Stanton just boggles my mind. [Hell, I even think they threw in a pitcher, IIRC…])
(Yes, yes, Fregosi had a .279/.350/.459 slash line after the Mets swept Philly on May 21 and the team was 25-7 and had a 6-game lead. It's what happened after that [.210/.292/.288, team goes 58-66] that mattered. Plus the other 21 seasons left in Nolan's career.)