Have you seen this? Have you heard about this?

http://www.minorleagueball.com/2009/3/4/780400/players-are-human-pitcher

I feel like I'd heard vaguely of a player being traded for bats. I didn't know it had ever actually happened.

That's fucked up.

Be sure to check out the story linked within the link above:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gTkO15m2l6Wv_mtaQ4684BT9j-hgD96MPF700

'The medical examiner said Odom's death in Georgia on Nov. 5 at age 26 was an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.'

'Calgary team president Peter Young and Laredo general manager Jose Melendez nearly traded him for a slugger, but it fell apart. Melendez proposed buying Odom's contract for $1,000. Young rejected that, saying the Vipers didn't do cash deals because they made the team look financially unstable.'

'Bats, though, the Vipers could use. At $665 for 10 bats — made by Prairie Sticks, double-dipped black, 34 inches long, model C243, Laredo agreed to the unusual deal.

"This was not done as a publicity stunt," said Young, now the Vipers' director of baseball operations. "I talked to John several times and told him this wasn't done to embarrass him."'

That's a cunty fucking move.

Also cunty:

'The Vipers planned to auction them for charity. When Ripley's Believe it or Not! heard about the trade, it offered $10,000 to the team's children's charity.

So the bats are now stored away at a warehouse in Orlando, Fla.

"We're still hoping to create an exhibit around them," said Tim O'Brien of Ripley's. "It would still attract a lot of interest."'

People suck.

D