Wackiest MLB trade stories in league history: 8. Repairs needed
At this very moment, just about every Major League Baseball owner is a billionaire. Due to their financial status, it’s seldom that they ever complain about what’s needed around the ballpark. In the early 1920s however, it was a different story entirely.
Lefty Grove was once a minor league pitcher for the Martinsburg Mountaineers of the Blue Ridge League. While he showed a ton of promise, the Mountaineers decided he was expendable.
Earlier in the year, the city was hit by a vicious storm. One of the casualties of said storm was the Mountaineers outfield fence. While they could have easily paid $3,500 to get it fixed, they believed it made more sense to give up an asset. The ballclub traded Lefty Groves to the Baltimore Orioles for, you guessed it, $3,500. That money was then used to fix the outfield fence.
Groves would eventually find himself onto an MLB team in 1925 and he made the Mountaineers regret their decision. As a member of the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, he went on to lead the league in ERA nine separate times, took home a league MVP, was selected to six All-Star games and eventually, inducted into the Hall of Fame. We highly doubt the fence he was traded for had the same sort of impact.