Happy Birthday to the USA and One Guy Who Had a Kellogg's Baseball Card

Wayne Nordhagen was born on this day in 1948.  He was first drafted on June 7th and a few years later traded on June 7th, a day that we have two family birthdays.  He was later traded on June 2nd, another day that we have two family birthdays.

1982 was an odd year for Nordhagen.  He was traded just before the season started from the White Sox to Toronto.  On June 15th he was traded to the Phillies for Dick Davis and then to the Pirates.   On June 22nd Davis was traded by the Blue Jays to the Pirates for a player to be named later.  On June 25th Nordhagen went back to Toronto as that player to be named later.  Confusing?  Sure.

Nordhagen played one game with the Pirates and Davis played three games with the Blue Jays.   It took 11 days, but here is the result of these odd trades:

6/15 Phillies - traded - Davis;  received - Bill Robison
6/15 Pirates - traded - Bill Robinson;  received - Nordhagen
6/15 Blue Jays - traded - Nordhagen;  received - Davis

6/22 Pirates - traded player to be named later;  received Davis
6/22 Blue Jays - traded Davis;  received player to be named later
6/25 Pirates/Blue Jays - named Nordhagen as the player to be named later

Net result of the 11 days of trading
Phillies - traded - Davis;  received - Robinson
Pirates - traded Robinson;  received - Davis
Blue Jays - traded - Nordhagen; received - Nordhagen 

There's got to be more to this story.  I'll need to look into what the GM for Toronto was doing on this one.

I mentioned before that Mike Lum's 1978 card was the one I pulled most from packs as a kid - 22 times.  The 1981 Dick Davis card ranked really high on the list as well.  Not one of my favorite cards.

Ed Armbrister was born on the same day as Nordhagen.  Armbrister,  who didn't get a Kellogg's card, got a lot more than that in the 1975 World Series.  He got an non-interference call when batting which was a big part of the Reds 6-5 win in game 3.  Not that people are still bitter about that.