Gus Bell

[Guest askus3]

I am trying to follow the chains of transactions of Mets history. How did Gus Bell start with the Mets and played with them from 4/11 thru 5/20/62 and then wound up on Milwaukee Braves. However, your transaction record shows he was traded to Milwaukee for Frank Thomas on Nov. 28, 1961. Can someone explain?

[Guest Edgy DC]

Hi. What transaction record do you refer to?

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Bell was the Player to be Named in the Frank Thomas trade. Sent there in May of 62.

[Guest Edgy DC]

He originally came in the expansion draft. Thomas was acquired for a Player to be Named Later, which would turn out to be Bell. So they were traded for each other, even though they played together for a bit.

[Guest mlbaseballtalk]

I think askus3 was refering to Yancy's page which does state rather oddly that the Mets traded Bell before he ever played for Frank Thomas, and somehow ended up playing as a Met

From baseball-reference.com's listing for Bell

]October 10, 1961: Drafted by the New York Mets from the Cincinnati Reds in the 1961 expansion draft. May 21, 1962: Sent by the New York Mets to the Milwaukee Braves to complete an earlier deal made on November 28, 1961. The New York Mets sent a player to be named later and cash to the Milwaukee Braves for a player to be named later and Frank Thomas. The New York Mets sent Gus Bell (May 21, 1962) to the Milwaukee Braves to complete the trade. The Milwaukee Braves sent Rick Herrscher (May 21, 1962) to the New York Mets to complete the trade.

Essentially Bell was a PTBN from that Nov 21st 1961 trade that would also net Rick Herrscher. Quite a long way to name a player, but I guess thats the way it goes for first years

[Guest askus3]

I was looking at the transaction record chronology on this Ultimate Mets website. It stated that on November 28, 1961:

New York Mets traded Gus Bell to the Milwaukee Braves for Frank Thomas.

So from what you are saying is that on 11/28/61 the trade was for a player to be named later for Frank Thomas and that player was Gus Bell. So the trade was not completed until May 21.

Follow-up questions: Now why was Rick Herrscher tossed in to the deal on May 21 and given to the Mets? (was Milwaukee feeling sorry for the Mets).

Thank you mlbaseballtalk for straightening me out on this. I have to link over to the website baseball-reference.com to see their transaction history to see if help on this stuff is there.

Confirm that I do have this right.

Thanks

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

Deal was Frank Thomas and a PTBNL (Herrscher) for Ca$h and a PTBNL (Bell).

[Zvon]

If anyone has a good pic of Bell in a Met uni, Id appreciate it.
I had to photoshop this one onto him.




....not my best work,lol.