As Tom Brady Transitions From New England To Tampa Bay, A Look Back At Baseball Hall Of Famers Whose Careers Ended In Unexpected Places

Sometime by the end of the week, Tom Brady will sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and officially end his longtime association with the New England Patriots. While Brady changing teams after such a storied run is stunning, it is hardly the first time a Hall of Fame player played for another team in the latter portion of his career.

It happened numerous times with Hall of Fame baseball players appearing for teams you don’t normally associate them with towards the end of their storied career.

The first that comes to mind is Babe Ruth. Ruth began his career pitching and hitting for the Boston Red Sox, who won the World Series in 1915, 1916 and 1918. Then he was traded to the Yankees where he won four more titles. With the Yankees he led the American League in homers 10 times but by 1934 when he turned 39, his total was down to 22. And in February 1935, he was released by the Yankees and signed with the Boston Braves. Back in Boston, he appeared in 28 games, hit .181 and hit the last of 714 homers.

Another Hall of Famer whose career you do not associate him with is Warren Spahn. Spahn won 356 of his 363 career games with the Boston and Milwaukee Braves from 1942 to 1964. He was a 23-game winner in 1963, his age-42 season but in 1964 slumped to 6-13 with a 4.60 ERA when he did not win any of his final 19 appearances. The Braves sold him to the Mets, who were entering their fourth season and were in the habit of getting a few Hall of Famers towards the end such as Duke Snider and later Willie Mays. Spahn made 20 appearances for the Mets as a player-coach in 1965 until getting released in July and then ended his legendary career by going 3-4 with a 3.39 ERA in 16 appearances for the Giants.

Ralph Kiner is best known for hitting 301 of his 369 with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1946 to 1953 and then becoming an original member of the Mets broadcast team and host of “Kiner’s Korner”. He also ended his career as a Chicago Cub and a Cleveland Indian for his final two seasons. He went to Chicago in a 10-player trade mostly due to salary disputes with Branch Rickey, who famously told him “We finished last with you and we can finish last without you.” Kiner ended his career in 1955 due to a back injury and was hitting .243 in 113 games when he retired.

Willie Mays is known for his legendary catch on Dusty Rhodes in the 1954 World Series for the New York Giants and slugged 646 of his 660 career homers for the Giants in New York and San Francisco from 1951 to 1972. After hitting .184 in his final 19 games for the Giants in 1972, Mays was traded to the Mets as owner Horace Stoneham was experiencing financial problems. Mays batted .238 in a year and a half with the Mets. He appeared in 66 games when the Mets stormed back to win the NL East with 82 wins while being managed by former Yankee Yogi Berra. Mays ended his career by appearing in three World Series games against Oakland.

Duke Snider was a stalwart of the Brooklyn Dodgers during the 1950s when they made the World Series four times and won it all in 1995. He also made the move to Los Angeles where he played until the 1962. Snider hit 407 homers, 389 with the Dodgers. He hit 14 more for the Mets in 1963 when they were in the second season of filling the void of National League baseball in New York and then four more for the Giants, who were 10 years removed from their last championship until 2010.

Hank Aaron is known for holding the all-time home record from 1974 until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007. He hit the first of his 733 homers for the Braves in St. Louis off former Yankee Vic Raschi in 1954. He then hit his last homer for the Braves in 1974, doing so in his final at-bat with the team against Cincinnati’s Rawly Eastwick. Aaron was then traded one month later to the Milwaukee Brewers after he decided not to retire. Aaron hit 22 more homers in Milwaukee for the next two seasons and hit the last of his 755 homers off Dick Drago on July 20, 1976.

With the advent of free agency in 1976, Hall of Famers changing teams became more of a frequent occurrence with notable exceptions being Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Cal Ripken Jr and Edgar Martinez.

In recent Hall of Fame classes, Lee Smith was on eight teams. He’s most associated with the Cubs but also spent brief stints with the Yankees and ended his career in 1997 with the Expos with his final game occurring July 2, 1997 on a day when Vladimir Guerrero hit the sixth of his 449 career homers. Guerrero hit 234 of those homers with the Expos and then 215 more while playing for the Angels, Rangers and Orioles.

Randy Johnson was traded four times while winning 303 games and striking out 4,875 hitters. He is associated with the Mariners and an example of what could have been when he was a teammate of Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey Jr and others in the mid-1990s. Then he dominated with the Arizona Diamondbacks, won 34 games in two seasons as a Yankees and ended his career in 2009 as a San Francisco Giant.

Another is Greg Maddux, who began his career with the Cubs in 1986, spurned the Yankees to sign with Atlanta following the 1992 season. After dominating in Atlanta as a teammate of fellow Hall of Famers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, he returned to Chicago in 2004 for two and a half seasons and then ended his 355-win career with the Dodgers and Padres.

As time goes on, more and more Hall of Fame caliber players will be associated with one team but will change teams, perhaps more than once. Brady’s eventual transition to Tampa Bay serves as a reminder for baseball fans that this is hardly a new phenomenon.



Source

Speak Your Mind

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Get in Touch

350FansLike
100FollowersFollow
281FollowersFollow
150FollowersFollow

Recommend for You

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Subscribe and receive our weekly newsletter packed with awesome articles that really matters to you!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

You might also like

India’s Zomato raises $62 million from Temasek

Indian food delivery startup Zomato has raised $62 million from Temasek, resuming a...

RBI Monetary Policy: No respite to home, auto loan...

New Delhi: The EMIs on home and auto loans are unlikely to come down...

RBI OMO: RBI to buy bonds worth Rs...

NEW DELHI: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday announced its plan to...

Musicians Challenge Bezos To Deal With Unlicensed Music Streaming...

TOPLINE Artists Rights Alliance, a non-profit representing songwriters and musicians, published a letter...