The Dumbest Trade of All-Time

Jason Varitek a.k.a. "The Captain"

If there is one trade in the entire history of Major League Baseball that demonstrates a “selling” team capitalizing on a “buying” team’s mistake, it's this one.
At the trade deadline of the 1997, the Seattle Mariners stood at 60-47, leading the American League West by just a half-game with a team built to be a contender down the stretch. On the other hand, the Boston Red Sox’s playoff aspirations had disintegrated as the team was 17 and a half games out of first place in the AL East. To bolster its bullpen, Seattle sent minor league catcher Jason Varitek and minor league pitcher Derek Lowe to the Red Sox in exchange for expensive reliever Heathcliff Slocumb.
The Mariners indeed made it to the playoffs in ’97, but Slocumb had little to do with it. In his first month with the team, Slocumb went 0-3 with a 5.63 ERA out of the ‘pen. In his only appearance in the postseason, he saw two innings on the mound in which he surrendered one run on three hits. Seattle was knocked out of the American League Divisional Series by the Baltimore Orioles and a season later Slocumb departed for free agency & went to Minnesota to finish up his career.
Varitek would spend his entire big league career in a Red Sox uniform and would serve as Team Captain for several of those seasons. He played on two World Series champion teams and was a three-time All-Star who was a serious contender for the AL MVP Award in 2005.
Lowe, also an All-Star on multiple occasions, serviced Boston well with a 100-inning season in relief, a 42-save season and a 21-win campaign.

Rest in Peace Dave Henderson

On December 27th, 2015, former Seattle Mariner Dave Henderson, better known as "Hendu", died due to a massive heart attack. He was picked by the Mariners as the franchise's very first amateur draft selection back in 1977. He was an extremely gifted athlete. He could run, hit, field, and throw extremely well. He reached the Major Leagues in 1981 and was immediately popular with everyone...except for then-Mariners owner George Argyros, who did not like him because Dave always had a smile on his face, win or lose &, believe me, there was a lot of losing back in the '80s for the Mariners. In 1986, the Mariners stunned everyone by trading the very talented Henderson to Boston for the very untalented Rey Quinones, who's biggest accomplishment as a Mariner was setting the clubhouse record of consecutive hours playing the Nintendo video game Super Mario Brothers. Anyways, once Henderson was traded, he became a legend in Boston Red Sox lore as he single-handedly got the Red Sox to the 1986 World Series by hitting a home run off of Angels' pitcher Donnie Moore in Game #5 of the 1986 American League Championship Series. After retiring from Baseball in 1994 due to the Player's Strike, Hendu eventually returned to the Mariners as an announcer on Mariner TV & radio broadcasts.

I actually got to meet Dave at Seattle Mariners FanFest 2006.  He was extremely nice.

Hendu, you will be missed

My Day at Fenway Park a.k.a. Why I Hate Mother Nature

On April 12, 2007, I was in Boston, Massachusetts at historic Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, with my mom. The Red Sox were facing the Seattle Mariners. The game had a start time of 12:30 PM Eastern. The Red Sox, in honor of the Boston Celtics, would be wearing their Green Sox Jerseys which they only wore on St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, right before the game started, hail, snow, sleet, any precipitation you could imagine, started pouring down on the field & because there is no retractable roof at Fenway Park, they cancelled the ballgame & it was rescheduled for May 1st.  My mom was crying because she had been saving her $$$ for three years to get me to Boston to see a Red Sox game at Fenway Park. My mom then took a picture of me and her right next to the Red Sox bullpen. In the picture I looked so happy & my mom had tears pouring down her face. But, what would happen if there was a website that you could use to simulate a cancelled ballgame from the past, like this one? Well, I did a little bit of research and I found the lineups that were going to be used on April 12th, 2007 & I used a TOP SECRET historical simulation tool and here are the final results... 

Winner: Boston Red Sox 9-3

Seattle Mariners	Boston Red Sox
Player Outs BB 1B 2B 3B HR Ichiro Suzuki 3 1 — — — — Adrian Beltre 4 1 — — — — Jose Vidro 3 — 2 — — — Raul Ibanez 4 — 1 — — — Richie Sexson 1 1 2 — — 1 Jose Guillen 3 — 1 — — 1 Kenji Johjima 2 — 2 — — 1 Yuniesky Betancourt 3 — 2 — — — Jose Lopez 2 — 2 — — — Jarrod Washburn — — — — — —	Player Outs BB 1B 2B 3B HR Julio Lugo 3 2 1 — — — Kevin Youkilis 4 — 1 1 — — David Ortiz 1 2 1 1 — 1 Manny Ramirez 1 1 2 1 — — J.D. Drew 4 — 1 — — 1 Mike Lowell 4 1 — 1 — — Jason Varitek 3 — 1 — — 1 Coco Crisp 2 1 2 — — — Dustin Pedroia 3 — 1 1 — — Tim Wakefield — — — — — —