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Turn Back The Clock: 4/11/73

Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2019 7:48 pm
by recte44
By: fearbobafett
4/28/06

So what is so significant about this date you ask? Well it was the date of the first ever trade in MBBA history.

New Orleans gets:

RF Joe Gillstrom
2B Booker Kengos

Calgary gets:

1B - Jack Kelly
RF - Pat Messlin
LF Jerome Dion
2B - Christian Jovanich
MR Gomer (AA)

What they said back then:
Calagary GM:
Both teams addressed and shored up holes on their clubs.
Kengos joins his brother who also plays for the Crawdads.

NO GM:
The Kengos brothers are thrilled to be playing in the same lineup together.

Though it's tough to let Jack Kelly go, New Orleans is thrilled to have Gillstrom's bat in the lineup, along with his ability to get on base. And New Orleans felt it necessary to lower payroll in an effort to free up some cash to hopefully extend a few key players this season.


The Careers:
Gillstrom went on to play 2.25 years for the Crawdads, posting nice power numbers with 32/51/15, while averaging 100 runs and 100 rbis. He was shippped off to Marquette early in 1975. He helped lead the Dads to the 1974 Landis Memorial Cup, was a 2 time all-star and 2 time batter of the year winner. He finished his career as a member of the MBBA Hall of Fame.

Kengos played 3 years for the Dads. He was injured in 1974 and played a half season. He didn't really start to pick it up until his free agency year of 1975 where he had his best season .280/16/95/85. Kengos was a solid defender over his career.

Kelly played two solid seasons in Calgary before they let him goto free agency. He had his best year during the inagural season .314/43/109/128. Kelly finished his career with 266 homers and a .277 average.

Messlin also played two years for Calgary, and was a top of the order type of hitter. Pat's career was done after 4 years as he finished with a .295 career average. His best days were in Calgary.

Dion played his whole career in Calgary, two of them to be exact. He was not much of a hitter, however in 1973 he managed a decent season .285/10/73/76.


Jovanich cotinues the theme of only playing two seasons in Calgary. He really is nothing more than a bench player. During his 8 year career he managed to start only two of them. He never really posted any type of numbers to merit discussion.

Gomer never made it to the bigs.

Trade winner:
The winner clearly is the Crawdads. Although no player really spent much time with thier new organization, the Dads, won a title within the two years all these players stayed on thier new teams. Calgary however had its best finish in 1973 winning 85 games, but were 25 games back, from there it just went down hill.

The two big hitters did what they were suppose to and pound home runs, but clearly Gillstrom was the better of the two, over this span.

Re: Turn Back The Clock: 4/11/73

Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:11 am
by 7teen
Wow, I didn't know there were other Kengos before Bopper and Tipper.

Nice to see Gipper is keeping the "First Family of the BBA" name alive.