Any idea which trade in baseball history involved the most HOFers???
 

I don't know which trade involved the most Hall of Fame members...

I do know that this one had quite a few.

December 8, 1899.

Tom Messitt, Fred Clarke, Mike Kelley, Rube Waddell, Honus Wagner, Chief Zimmer, Deacon Phillippe, Claude Ritchey, Tommy Leach, Tacks Latimer, Bert Cunningham, and Jack Wadsworth, all to the Pirates for Jack Chesbro, George Fox, Art Madison, John O'Brien, and $25,000. That was a lot of money in the day.

5 members of the Hall, Chesbro, Clarke, Kelley, Waddell, and Wagner.

Here are a few cards, depicting a few of those guys. I like the T210 red border Old Mill card of Tom Messitt, who played 3 games in the majors, all in 1899 for Louisville of the National League.

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j1...9tradeguys.jpg

Not the King
 

Mike (King) Kelly the HOFer died in 1894. This was Michael J. Kelley, a one-year major leaguer who wound up running the Minneapolis Millers in the 20s-30s and appears on some cards as such.
Actually, this wasn't a trade by modern standards. It was roster maneuvering as part of the consolidation of the Louisville and Pittsburg franchises for the 1900 season.

Hi Frank

Interesting stuff. And perhaps, the Kelley you cited is HOFer Joseph James Kelley ?
Who played for Pittsburgh briefly during the 1890's.

Best regards,

TED Z

Spec, I agree with the first part and am corrected.

I disagree with the 'roster consolidation' euphemism. I well understand that Louisville was in the process of departing the National League, and what was going on. But you have 2 different franchises, players' contracts being reassigned, money moving... that's a trade. Baseball Reference . Com uses the term trade.

And yes, Ted, I see that he's the fellow that managed at St. Paul and at Minneapolis. He managed in the minors for 30 years.


So 4 Hall of Famers:: Wagner, Clarke, Waddell, and Chesbro

Clarification
 

Chesbro was shuffled back to the Pittsburg roster before the 1900 season began and Louisville owner Barney Dreyfuss, another HOFer, wound up owning the Pirates franchise largely as a result of this deal. Decide for yourself whether this meets your definition of "trade."

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Autographs
 

In 1925, surviving members of the '00 - '01 Pirates gathered for a reunion. I have a signed ball from that event. Signatures include Kitty Bransfield (who signed himself "Lefty," though he neither batted nor threw left handed), Lee Tannehill, Claude Ritchey, Chief Zimmer, Tommy Leach, Charlie ("Deacon") Phillipe, Jimmie Burke, Ginger Beaumont, J. Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Jack Chesbro and Barney Dreyfus.

My favorite, next to the HOFers, is Chief Zimmer. We don't hear enough about him. If you're interested, see

http://www.thedeadballera.com/Obits/...hief.Obit.html

Zimmer, Beaumont, and Phillipe were really good ballplayers. Tannehill and Bransfield were good. Prof, have you a scan of that ball?

'spec', I will concede that it wasn't a normal trade... I'd think the League office expected to see trade forms, and the other owners thought it like two corporations swapping stock.

Ball
 

I'll see if I can take a few pictures.

The most I could find stumbling through Baseball Reference was when 3 HOF'ers Mathewson, McKechnie and Ed Rousch were traded from the Giants to the Reds for a couple non-HOF'ers.

Came across a bunch with 2 HOF'ers.

Hoyt Wilhelm for Luis Aparicio

Manush for Goslin

Grimes for Stengel

Frankie Frisch for Hornsby (probably the most significant)


It just doesn't seem to happen very often when future HOF'ers trade teams.

Lots of Blockbuster trades with eye-candy prospects who never really panned out or didn't reach the HOF level.