Today in Philly Sports History: Rob Ducey Traded for Self, 2000

The Ed Wade era in Philadelphia history was marked by more than a handful of gaffes, but perhaps none more conspicuously so than a pair that Wade made in the summer of 2000. On July 26th, Wade shipped off veteran benchwarmer Rob Ducey to Toronto, where Ducey had played the first six years of his career, in return for a player to be named later (which eventually turned into minor league pitcher John Sneed, a scrub who never saw an inning of major league action). Not exactly a steal, but whatever, no great loss. But Wade, evidently unable to cope with the loss, made another deal on August 7th that sent longtime Phils second-baseman Mickey Morandini to the Blue Jays, to get Ducey back in the Red and White. In the words of Jayson Stark, "It's a feat never accomplished by Babe Ruth, Willie Mays or Ty Cobb...among all active players, only Rob Ducey has now been traded for himself."

The humor of the situation was not lost on the Phils. "It's value for value," quipped Wade, evidently tickled pink by his own redundant tinkerings. "Their tools are very similar. The guy we got in
return is a little older. But he's got less left on his contract. So it's a
good tradeoff." Meanwhile, teammate Doug Glanville found an obvious pop culture parallel. "With the release of the Hollow Man, I figure it was just some government
scheme to test out invisibility on humans," hypothesized Glanville. "He was actually here the whole
time. We just didn't know it." And truth told, it's not like the team actually lost that much in the fire--Morandini wasn't exactly having a particularly banner 2000 for the Fightins, hitting for a lackluster .639 OPS over 91 games in what was essentially The Mick's Philly farewell tour.

Still, you gotta wonder about the nature of trades like this when all they result in are players--still human beings, technically speaking--having to uproot their whole lives (Ducey lost his apartment and his locker in the transition) just to make for some GM busywork. "I'm surprised I still have my jersey number," sarcastically remarked the Hollow Man.