With Sidney Crosby’s agent Pat Brisson stating earlier this week that a trade out of Pittsburgh is “always a possibility,” Penguins fans are having a hard time even theoretically picturing Crosby in any jersey other than that of the Penguins. While it seems very unlikely that this would ever happen, it is not out of the realm of possibility. Wayne Gretzky was traded twice, Tom Brady was traded, and others who spent their whole career with one team decided to end their careers elsewhere.
This got me to thinking, what are some of the oddest instances of players that were all-time greats with one team that were either traded or went to another team at the end of their career.
Since we’re on the topic of hockey, let’s start there. Going back several decades, Bobby Orr chose to finish his career with the Chicago Blackhawks after a decade with the Boston Bruins. He signed a five-year, $3M contract with Chicago in the summer of 1976, but would end up only playing 26 total games for Chicago. During the 1976-77 season he played just 20 games. He sat out the entire next season, then attempted to come back for the 1977-78 season, but played just six games before retiring due to lingering effects from five knee surgeries.
Even more odd than Orr has to be the NHL’s all-time winningest goaltender, Martin Brodeur, in a St. Louis Blues uniform. After 21 seasons, 1,259 games played, 691 wins, and three Stanley Cup Championships with New Jersey, Brodeur decided at the age of 42 to sign a one-year deal with St. Louis after their starting goaltender, Brian Elliott, went down with an injury. Brodeur was a free agent at the end of the 2013-14 season and the Devils decided to move on from him. Brodeur, however, had a desire to play one more season and the Blues came calling. Interestingly, he only played for the Blues from December 2014 to January 2015, playing six games, going 3-3 with a .899 save percentage and 2.87 goals against average. When Eliott returned from injury, Brodeur was relegated to third-string goalie and subsequently retired on January 27, 2015.
Moving away from hockey and a little closer to home, the example many Pittsburghers always bring up is Franco Harris donning a Seattle Seahawks jersey. Harris spent the first 12 seasons of his career with the Steelers, but he held out of training camp in 1984 and the Steelers cut him, leaving him a free agent. He then signed with the Seahawks, but only played in eight games, rushing for just 170 yards before being released. He retired shortly thereafter as the third all-time leading rusher in the NFL at the time; he still ranks 15th overall with 12,120 rushing yards.
Speaking of running backs, how weird was it to see Emmitt Smith running the football twice a season against the Dallas Cowboys with whom he had spent his first 13 seasons? Smith broke the all-time rushing record with Dallas during the 2002 season. However, he was unceremoniously released at the end of the season. He subsequently signed with the division rival Cardinals and went on to have two rather productive seasons with Arizona, recording 1,193 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns. He retired at the age of 35 after the 2004 season.
While the last two years for Smith in an unfamiliar uniform were very productive, the same cannot be said for baseball’s most recognizable name. Babe Ruth is still Major League Baseball’s all-time leader in slugging percentage (.690), On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) (1.164), and highest career Wins Above Replacement (WAR) at 183.1.
Most baseball fans know the story of how, after six seasons with the Red Sox, Ruth was sold by the team to the New York Yankees after the 1919 season. Ruth then spent the next 15 seasons with the Bronx Bombers. What many people don’t realize is that Ruth returned to Boston for his final season, not to the Red Sox, but the lowly Boston Braves. Ruth, now 40, only played in 28 games for the Braves, batting a paltry .181 with 12 RBI. Amazingly, six of those RBI came on May 25, 1935 at Forbes Field when he hit three homeruns against the Pirates. Despite Ruth’s heroics, the Braves lost the game, as they frequently did; they finished 38-115 that season. Five days later, Ruth started in left field for the first game of a doubleheader. As the Braves left the field after the third out of the first inning, Ruth did not join them. Instead, he pulled himself out of the game and walked through the centerfield gate at the Baker Bowl to a standing ovation. He would announce his retirement three days later.
For more modern baseball examples we turn to two of the greatest hitters of all-time, Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ichiro Suzuki. Both of these sluggers started and ended their careers with the Seattle Mariners and, arguably, most associated with that franchise.
After 11 seasons in Seattle, Griffey expressed a desire to want to play closer to his family in Florida. He rejected a large contract offer from Seattle, knowing he could become a free agent. After Griffey exercised his right to veto trades, he picked the Reds as his preferred destination (he grew up in Cincinnati), leading the Mariners to trade him there on February 10, 2000 where he spent the next nine seasons. Griffey would later finish his career back in Seattle for the 2009 and 2010 seasons. However, there was a brief stop in between with the White Sox. At the 2008 trade deadline, the Reds moved Griffey to the White Sox. Griffey, now 38, agreed to the trade in hopes of getting that elusive World Series championship. Even though the White Sox lost in the American League Division Series that season, Griffey had a respectable stint with the White Sox, batting .260 with three homeruns and 18 RBI in 41 regular-season games played.
Similarly, Ichiro spent his first 11 seasons with the Mariners. Seattle was in a rebuilding mode during the 2012 season, so Ichiro requested a trade because of his desire to be part of a winning team. His request was granted in July of that season and he was sent to the Yankees. He would spend the rest of the 2012 season plus two more seasons in the Bronx, which were his age 39 and 40 seasons.
Now at age 40, Ichiro had limited options in free agency available to him, but that was when the Marlins came calling. Ichiro recently joked about his stint in Miami during his Hall of Fame induction speech stating, “And to the Miami Marlins: I appreciate David Samson and Mike Hill for coming today. Honestly, when you guys called to offer me a contract for 2015, I had never heard of your team.” He would spend three seasons in Miami, batting a respectable .256 with 63 RBI. During his stint in Miami he was also able to collect his 3,000th hit, a feat that just 33 players in MLB history have accomplished. Just like Griffey, Ichiro returned to Seattle for his final two seasons, but only saw 53 plate appearances. He retired at age 45 on March 21, 2019 immediately after appearing in two exhibition games in Tokyo.
So, will we ever see Sidney Crosby in a jersey other than that of the Penguins? While it seems unlikely and unfathomable, if Babe Ruth, Bobby Orr, Emmitt Smith, and the other aforementioned greats finished their careers in unfamiliar garb, anything is possible.
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