1980 barry bonnell

did you know that chris chambliss was once a blue jay?  i didn't until i looked up barry bonnell for this post.  the yankees traded the hero of the 1976 alcs to toronto in a november 1979 deal that gave them rick cerone.  a month later, the blue jays flipped chambliss to the braves for barry bonnell.  here's bonnell's 1980 o-pee-chee card

here's the topps front:

notice the black arm band.  wrigley wax just posted the other day about it - he discovered that the braves were honoring their general manager, bill lucas, who had died early in the 1979 season.

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

in addition to keeping chris chambliss out of a blue jay uniform, bonnell was part of another trade that involved a big name and a team they never played for.  he was acquired in may of 1975 by the braves in the deal that sent dick allen back to philadelphia after allen declared he would not play for atlanta.  that was the deal that saw jim essian being traded for dick allen twice.  the braves got allen from the white sox in december of 1974 for aptbnl, then acquired essian with bonnell for allen from the phillies and flipped essian to chicago as the ptbnl.

apologies to barry bonnell for finding all of this trade history more interesting than his stats.

voici à vous, 1980 barry bonnell!