BLOCKBUSTERS\For better or worse, L.A. deals bring out stars.Byline: Kevin Modesti Daily News Staff Writer It wouldn't be the biggest deal in Kings history. It wouldn't even be the biggest deal in Wayne Gretzky Noun 1. Wayne Gretzky - high-scoring Canadian ice-hockey player (born in 1961) Gretzky history. And unless the rumored trade that would send Gretzky to the St. Louis Blues also involves an arch to be named later, or something, it certainly wouldn't be the most remarkable in a half-century of significant deals by Los Angeles-area teams. In the town whose most essential newspapers are called the trades, whose greatest home-grown racehorse racehorse refers usually to thoroughbred but may also include standardbred, trotter. was named Swaps, and which turned Archibald Leach Archibald Leach may refer to:
Grant and Judy Garland, making them early players to be named later, of course we've seen some blockbuster deals. With rumors of another Great One afoot, let's take a stroll on the Deals Walk of Fame: More for Les The Rams of the 1950s ship so many players out of town, they should run a travel agency on the side. In 1952 they pack 11 players off to Dallas (the old Texans) in a trade for rookie Les Richter Les Richter (born October 26 1930 in Fresno, California) is a former Los Angeles Rams National Football League football player turned auto racing president of the Riverside International Raceway. , a two-time All-America lineman from Cal. In 1959 they send nine players to Chicago (the Cardinals) for Ollie Matson Oliver Adrian Matson (born May 1, 1930 in Trinity, Texas) is a former professional American football running back who played in the National Football League, in 1952 and from 1954 to 1966. He graduated from George Washington High School in San Francisco in 1948. , a six-time Pro Bowl rusher and receiver. Richter's NFL NFL abbr. National Football League NFL (US) n abbr (= National Football League) → Fußball-Nationalliga debut is delayed two years by an Army stint. If they gave Purple Hearts Purple Hearts can refer to the following:
place-kicker, he's a star of the Rams' only division-title season in that span, in 1955. Matson, too, is a Ram until 1962. He doesn't put up the numbers he had in Chicago, sharing the ball in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. with Tom Wilson and Jon Arnett Jon Dwane Arnett (born April 20, 1935 in Los Angeles) was a first-team All-American out of USC and Manual Arts High School. College Career He was inducted into the USC Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 as a member of the USC . Wilson, Arnett and Matson are known as the WAM WAM - Intermediate language for compiled Prolog, used by the Warren Abstract Machine. "An Abstract Prolog Instruction Set", D.H.D. Warren, TR 309, SRI 1983. Boys. George Michael
Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou (Greek: joins later. The Ryan steal The best deal in Angels history brings Nolan Ryan
Newspaper coverage focuses on the departure of Fregosi, the shortstop who is an original Angel. As for Ryan, the wild right-hander is "said to have the potential of a Sandy Koufax Fregosi, who scored at least 66 runs each Angels season through 1970, never scores more than 31 with the Mets, Texas Rangers Texas Rangers, mounted fighting force organized (1835) during the Texas Revolution. During the republic they became established as the guardians of the Texas frontier, particularly against Native Americans. and Pittsburgh Pirates This article is about the baseball team. For the National Hockey League team, see Pittsburgh Pirates (NHL). For the National Football League team (1933–1940), see Pittsburgh Steelers. . Ryan pitches four no-hitters for the Angels before they let him go to Houston in 1980. Then he gets good. Too many chiefs? The Lakers want a center to compete with the Boston Celtics' Bill Russell Noun 1. Bill Russell - United States basketball center (born in 1934) William Felton Russell, Russell . Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman "Wilt" Chamberlain (August 21, 1936–October 12, 1999), nicknamed Wilt the Stilt and The Big Dipper, was an American professional National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player for the Philadelphia / San Francisco Warriors, the wants more money than the Philadelphia 76ers are willing to pay - $1 million over three years. In the 1968 offseason, the Lakers send Jerry Chambers Jerome Purcell "Jerry" Chambers (born July 18, 1943 in Washington, D.C.) is a retired American professional basketball player. At 6'5" and 185 pounds, he played as a forward. , Archie Clark and Darrell Imhoff to Philadelphia and get the NBA's all-time scoring leader. Imhoff cautions that the Lakers, burdened with too many superstars in Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, are no shoo-ins for a title. They win one in 1972, but only after Baylor's knees force him to quit in midseason. Imhoff's part in the deal is complicated by a factor that doesn't come up much anymore: He was also employed by the Lakers in the offseason as a ticket seller. A little 1-for-1 deal The estate of Rams owner Dan Reeves is trying to unload the team. Baltimore Colts owner Carroll Rosenbloom wants to move west. Robert Irsay, a 49-year-old mechanical contractor from Skokie, Ill., is in the market for a football team. In July 1972, they arrange a deal wherein Irsay and a partner buy the Rams for a then-NFL-record $19 million and then trade teams with Rosenbloom, who throws $3 or $4 million Irsay's way to even things out. In what amounts to the biggest trade in the history of team sports, not a single player changes cities. Irsay promises never to move the Colts out of Baltimore. Rosenbloom is not asked to make any such pledge. After all, what kind of idiot would even consider moving the Rams out of Los Angeles? The I-5 trade The Dodgers and Angels pull off the biggest of a record 19 trades involving 21 teams and 68 players at the 1972 winter meetings. Los Angeles gets Andy Messersmith and Ken McMullen. California gets Frank Robinson, Bill Singer, Bobby Valentine, Bill Grabarkewitz and Mike Strahler. "The Dodgers gave up too much," Singer declares. "Four of the five are under 30 . . ." Messersmith averages 18 wins in three Dodgers seasons. Singer wins 20 but drops off to seven and seven for the Angels. Robinson, reunited with former Baltimore Orioles general manager Harry Dalton, takes advantage of the new designated-hitter rule to have two good years for the Angels. McMullen, expected to solidify third base for the Dodgers, loses the job to rookie Ron Cey. As for the prospects: Valentine tangles with the Anaheim Stadium fence, snaps his leg, and is never the same. Strahler lasts one more year in the big leagues. Grabarkewitz plays for four more teams and never approaches his 17-home-runs form of 1970. Hi there, Big Fella Reintroduced to Los Angeles at a circus-like Forum news conference June 16, 1975, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar steps into the Imhoff role himself, cautioning that his arrival doesn't guarantee the playoffs for the Lakers. He's right for the first year, when the Lakers, though improved, miss the postseason. In fact, it is Kareem's old team, the Milwaukee Bucks, who bounce from last place to first in the Midwest Division. Abdul-Jabbar comes with Walt Wesley in the trade that sends Elmore Smith, Brian Winters and first-round draft choices Dave Meyers and Junior Bridgeman to the Bucks. He had asked to be traded, complaining, "I like reading, film and riding horses, and you can't do that in Milwaukee in the winter." Milwaukee purchases snow blowers for its libraries and theaters. King Marcel A week after the Kareem trade, the Kings, who, like the Lakers, are owned by Jack Kent Cooke Jack Kent Cooke (25 October, 1912 – 6 April, 1997) was a Canadian-American entrepreneur who became one of the most widely-known executives in North American professional sports. , announce the acquisition of Marcel Dionne along with Bart Crashley from the Detroit Red Wings
The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. in a trade for Dan Maloney, Terry Harper and a second-round draft pick. There isn't much fanfare. Remember, this is Kings hockey in the 1970s. Dionne, whose 366 points are a record for the first four years of an NHL NHL Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, see there career, is enthusiastic as anybody when he says: "This is the thrill of my life, because I'll be with a winning team." The Kings have five winning records in Dionne's 12 seasons here. He leads the team in scoring nine times. Nothing for free Always looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. a quick fix between 1977 and 1982, the Angels sign free agents Bobby Grich, Joe Rudi, Don Baylor, Lyman Bostock and Reggie Jackson. It's a twist on an old joke: If Gene Autry had known he was going to live this long, he'd have built for the future. Silent impact A pair of Dodgers deals, one good, one bad, didn't look like much at the time: Tipped to Pedro Guerrero by their Latin America scouts, the Dodgers quietly acquire the minor-league outfielder in a trade with the Cleveland Indians for pitcher Bruce Ellingsen. Guerrero hits .309 with 171 homers in 10 Dodgers seasons, and Ellingsen goes 1-1 in his career. Needing a reserve infielder and confident Steve Howe's (first) drug rehabilitation would take, the Dodgers trade minor-league left-handed reliever John Franco to the Cincinnati Reds for Rafael Landestoy in 1983. Howe let the Dodgers down again (and again), and Franco twice led the National League in saves. Look who's coming up The Dodgers' long-shot World Series victory in 1988 can be traced to a handful of roster changes. Actually two hands full. General manager Fred Claire brings in relievers Jay Howell and Jesse Orosco and shortstop Alfredo Griffin in a three-way trade with the New York Mets and Oakland A's, Tim Belcher from the A's, Rick Dempsey from free agency and John Tudor from the St. Louis Cardinals For the National Football League team that played in St. Louis from 1960 to 1987, see . The St. Louis Cardinals (also referred to as "the Cards" or "the Redbirds") are a professional baseball team based in St. Louis, Missouri. . But it is the signing of Kirk Gibson that will be remembered longest. In the healthiest of three seasons in Los Angeles, Gibson is the National League Most Valuable Player and, if memory serves, bats once in the SeriTes. "Talk about an impact player," said Rich Perlman of the Los Angeles Sports Council, which announced last year that Gibson's Game 1 homer had been voted the No. 1 sports moment in L.A. history. Dar-ryl Has there ever been a more disappointing free-agent signing than Darryl Strawberry's with the Dodgers for a then-baseball-record $20.25 million following the 1990 season? Back trouble and, finally, drink and drugs hold him to 10 home runs over his final two seasons with the Dodgers, who release him May 25, 1994. The Dodgers go 237-249 in Strawberry's three full seasons here. Twice bitten, twice shy Actually, there were two more-disappointing free-agent signings. The Dodgers' million-dollar signings of pitchers Dave Goltz (from Minnesota) and Don Stanhouse (from Baltimore) in 1980 put them off free agents for years to come. Goltz goes 9-19 in parts of three seasons in Los Angeles. Stanhouse has a 5.04 ERA in one season and hurts his back. Drafting a dynasty The Lakers' best moves since getting Kareem involve varying degrees of good luck. After the 1976 season Gail Goodrich signs a free-agent contract with the New Orleans Jazz New Orleans Jazz can refer to:
Also in 1979, they trade Don Ford and a draft choice to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Butch Lee and the 1982 draft choice that went for James Worthy. A necessary evil Eric Dickerson set an NFL record by rushing for 2,105 yards in 1984, but by 1987 his salary complaints have become distracting to the Rams. So at midseason they send him to the Indianapols Colts in a three-team trade that brings the Rams six draft choices over two years as well as running backs Greg Bell, a one-time Pro Bowl player, and Owen Gill. Dickerson further endears himself to L.A. fans when he suggests the average guy is "jealous" of his four-year, $5.6 million Colts contract. "I didn't choose his career Tfor him," Dickerson says. "If he wants to make $600,000, $800,000, he should have played professional football . . ." One of the Rams' draft choices goes for 1,000-yard rusher Gaston Green. Unfortunately Green gets the 1,000 yards after being sent on to the Denver Broncos. The Rams go 8-21 in the two seasons after the trade. Dickerson leads the Colts to their first winning season in a decade the following year, but soon sours on them, and vice versa VICE VERSA. On the contrary; on opposite sides. . The only team that gets as much as it expected out of the deal is the Buffalo Bills, who receive linebacker Cornelius Bennett, a 1987 draft choice the Colts can't sign. King Wayne The only trade to make the L.A. Sports Council's top 100 moments is the 1988 blockbuster that brings Gretzky (and Marty McSorley and Mike Krushelnyski) to the Kings and sends Jimmy Carson, Martin Gelinas, three draft picks and $15 million to the Edmonton Oilers. "This really changes our plans," Kings GM Rogie Vachon says. "Not that I'm complaining." Gretzky's arrival leads to the Kings' only Stanley Cup finals appearance, a western hockey boom, and NHL expansion to San Jose and Anaheim. Subtraction subtraction, fundamental operation of arithmetic; the inverse of addition. If a and b are real numbers (see number), then the number a−b is that number (called the difference) which when added to b (the subtractor) equals by subtraction In the most consequential player move in the short life of the Los Angeles Raiders, Marcus Allen moves on to bigger and better things, signing with the Kansas City Chiefs Like the Dickerson deal, it is forced by a malcontent mal·con·tent adj. Dissatisfied with existing conditions. n. 1. A chronically dissatisfied person. 2. One who rebels against the established system: , only in this case the malcontent is Raiders owner Al Davis, who maintained a feud with the NFL's 1985 Most Valuable Player. In 1994, Allen helps to keep the Raiders out of the playoffs with his first 100-yard rushing game in four years, a game that puts his career total over 10,000 yards. In 1995, he rushes for 890 yards to lead the AFC's No. 1 ground attack. Al has been looking for a running back ever since. Not so magical You have to strain to find a truly bad Lakers deal. A couple of forgettable for·get·ta·ble adj. Fit or apt to be forgotten: a movie with very forgettable characters. Adj. 1. forgettable - easily forgotten unforgettable - impossible to forget ones: In 1979, they trade AdrianT Dantley to the Utah Jazz for Spencer Haywood. Dantley goes on to average 26 points or more for seven straight seasons. Haywood falls asleep in practice and is voted a fractional share Fractional share Stocks amounting to less than one full share, usually resulting from splits, acquisitions, exchanges, or dividend reinvestment programs. fractional share Less than one share of stock, that is, one-third or one-half a share. of the Lakers' championship payoff. It's not all that bad: The Lakers have Jamaal Wilkes to play Dantley's small-forward position. In 1993 they trade Sam Perkins to the Seattle SuperSonics for Benoit Benjamin and Doug Christie. Christie, the 6-foot-6 player the Lakers really want in the deal, never pans out at point guard or small forward and is traded in 1994 to the New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Knicks for two second-round draft picks. Benjamin is sent on to the New Jersey Nets for Sam Bowie. So the Lakers essentially get Bowie for Perkins. They haven't had a power forward of his caliber since. Clipped The Clippers haven't traded away as many good players as you'd expect. They've been helped in this regard by the fact they haven't had many good players. One of their deals in particular pays off: Early in the 1989-90 season they get Ron Harper in exchange for Cleveland's 1990 and 1992 first-round choices and Reggie Williams and the rights to Danny Ferry, who then chooses to play the next year in Italy. Harper becomes a Clippers star before a knee injury in 1990. The 1992 draft pick turns into Loy Vaught, a current starter. Ferry never matches his college promise. Same old story Again thinking they are one acquisition away from a title, the Angels give up Dante Bichette for Dave Parker in 1991. Parker, 40, hits .255 that season and the Angels finish last. Bichette goes from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Colorado Rockies and leads the National League in most batting statistics in 1995. "Now it looks like a horrible trade," Bichette said last summer. "At the time it wasn't." CAPTION(S): PHOTO Photo (1-11) Roll call of L.A. deals through the years (Upper row, from left), Lakers' Wilt Chamberlain brought a long-awaited title in '72; disgruntled dis·grun·tle tr.v. dis·grun·tled, dis·grun·tling, dis·grun·tles To make discontented. [dis- + gruntle, to grumble (from Middle English gruntelen; see Eric Dickerson was traded by the Rams in 'T87; Spencer Haywood had a short and sleepy stay with the Lakers. (Second row) Andy Messersmith moved from Angels to Dodgers in '72; Darryl Strawberry arrived with a smile and left everyone groaning; Carroll Rosenbloom was in the middle of trade involving the entire Rams team. (Third row) Marcel Dionne was L.A.'s marquee hockey name in the '70s; Wayne Gretzky was plucked from Edmonton to show the NHL how to win over the West Coast; Nolan Ryan came to Angels in Jim Fregosi trade. (Bottom row) Pedro Guerrero was stolen by Dodgers from Indians; Reggie Jackson gave the Angels some thrills but never a World Series. (12) First a Dodger, outfielder-DH Frank Robinson became a productive Angel after the two teams pulled off a seven-player trade in 1972. (13) Kirk Gibson didn't stay in L.A. all that long, but one World Series swing in 1988 will forever be part of the city's lore. Daily News File Photos |
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