YES Network.com

When Alex Rodríguez nearly got traded to the Red Sox, only to end up with the Yankees, fans of both teams had to be asking themselves, "What if?"

It's a fun game to play for any number of current Yankees or Red Sox players, especially when the two teams get together for a crucial series, like this weekend's five-gamer. What if A-Rod was in Boston? What if David Ortiz was in the Bronx?

There's only one problem with these scenarios. The chance of the Yankees and Red Sox hooking up for a trade are about the same as Sal Fasano anchoring the U.S. men's Olympic 4 x 400 meter relay team.

That's not just conjecture. After a flurry of trading in the 1920s and 1930s, the two teams have made just 10 trades among themselves since World War II. Since the landmark Sparky Lyle trade of 1972, the Yankees and Red Sox have made just two deals — only one of them involving players changing sides, rather than a player-for-cash exchange.

Still, the two teams have made enough impact trades to warrant a closer look. I've assembled every deal ever made between the Yankees and Red Sox, involving either an exchange of players or cash for one or more player. We're labeling each period based largely on the Red Sox ownership group in place. The Sox initiated many of these deals as either cash dumps, ill-advised grabs of over-the-hill players or other mistakes, such that the Yankees rarely lost a trade between the two teams.

(Thanks to retrosheet.org for the research. Big thanks to fellow YES man Steven Goldman, the maestro of Yankees history, a most excellent compadre, and the leading mind behind the 2005 book "Mind Game." Note that in each trade, the first trading team listed is New York, whether the Yankees or their predecessors the Highlanders, and the second team is Boston, whether the Red Sox or their predecessors the Americans):

THE EARLY YEARS
December 20, 1903: Traded Jesse Tannehill to Boston Americans in exchange for Long Tom Hughes.

June 17, 1904: Traded Bob Unglaub to Boston Americans in exchange for Patsy Dougherty.

June 7, 1907: Lost Deacon McGuire to Boston Americans on waivers.

November 5, 1907: Purchased Hobe Ferris from Boston Red Sox.

December 1907: Sold Frank LaPorte to Boston Red Sox.

July 10, 1908: Sold Jake Stahl to Boston Red Sox.

August 17, 1908: Traded Harry Niles to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Frank LaPorte.

September 11, 1909: Lost Jack Chesbro to Boston Red Sox on waivers

January 18, 1910: Claimed Harry Wolter from Boston Red Sox on waivers.

May 10, 1910: Sold Clyde Engle to Boston Red Sox.

May 26, 1910: Sold Red Kleinow to Boston Red Sox.

May 13, 1914: Purchased Les Nunamaker from Boston Red Sox.

May 27, 1914: Sold Guy Cooper to Boston Red Sox.

Not many major trades during this era. When a team "lost" a player on waivers in those days, it didn't carry the same meaning as it does today. Since this was well before Branch Rickey popularized the concept of a farm system, teams didn't try to sneak players through waivers to get them back to their minor league affiliates. Instead, placing a player on waivers meant you were trying to punish him, whether for bad play, a bad attitude, or even if he just walked funny.

Deacon McGuire had used up his utility as a player by the time he got waived in 1907, being 43 years old by then. But the move to Boston gave McGuire his first managing opportunity since he served as player-manager for Washington nine years earlier. McGuire compiled a 98-123 record in two years as Boston's manager, then served as Cleveland's skipper for three more seasons, sprinkling in a few at-bats in each of those seasons. He played in parts of 26 seasons, from 1884 to 1912, one of the longest careers in big league history.

The Red Sox also claimed Jack Chesbro off waivers from the Yankees near the end of the 1909 season. Had this happened five years earlier, it would have been earth-shattering news. Chesbro's 1904 season ranks among the best performances ever by a starting pitcher. Happy Jack won an unfathomable 41 games that year, lost only 12, and hurled a ridiculous 454 2/3 innings. This was the Deadball Era, which made runs hard to come by — the league-average ERA was 2.70. But Chesbro wasn't merely a product of his environment. His 1.82 ERA that year was 48 percent better than average. That season helped Chesbro get into the Hall of Fame, despite pitching for just 11 seasons and falling just short of 200 wins.

THE HARRY FRAZEE YEARS, PART 1
Harry Frazee was the Red Sox owner who stocked the Yankees with gobs of talent for several years, while also engineering the single-most famous — and infamous — trade in baseball history. There were so many landmark deals during this era that we've split it in two.

December 18, 1918: Traded Frank Gilhooley, Slim Love, Ray Caldwell, Roxy Walters and $15000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Ernie Shore and Duffy Lewis.

Shore was an excellent pitcher for four years in Boston. He played with Babe Ruth in Baltimore, then was sold along with Ruth to Boston. Ruth joined him in New York a year later, and the two became roommates. On June 23, 1917, Ruth was ejected from the game after protesting a walk to the first batter he faced. Shore came on in relief. After the leadoff man was caught stealing, Shore pitched a perfect game in relief. Shore was one of many players whose careers could have turned out very differently if not for military service. After spending the 1918 season fighting in World War I, he was all but finished as a pitcher. Duffy Lewis also missed the 1918 season and was never the same again.

Ray Caldwell was an effective spitballer for the Yankees who didn't help the Red Sox. Dutch Leonard was originally part of the deal, but refused to the Yankees. The Yankees let the deal stand without him. The trade ended up creating plenty of sound and fury, while signifying nothing.

June 13, 1919: Sold Bill Lamar to Boston Red Sox.

July 29, 1919: Traded Allen Russell, Bob McGraw and $40,000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Carl Mays.

In the middle of a game in the summer of 1919, Mays walked out on his team, saying he wasn't coming back. A mercurial but immensely talented pitcher, Mays presented the Red Sox with a big dilemma: Try and sweet-talk him back onto the mound and accept his antics, or ship him out of town.

The American League, which is to say, AL Commissioner Ban Johnson, wanted to make the decision for the Red Sox. Johnson proclaimed that May was guilty of insubordination and needed to be punished. A long suspension or possible expulsion from the game would have left the Red Sox holding the bag. So Frazee decided to take action, hoping to get something back for his pain-in-the-neck pitcher, even if it meant taking 75 cents (or less) on the dollar in terms of pure talent. Boston's owner sent Mays to the Yankees for two iffy players and some cash-one of many deals that would see New York ship money to Frazee, who always seemed on the brink of financial ruin.

Johnson objected, saying Mays was…well, Banned. The Yankees and Red Sox sued, scoring an injunction against Johnson. The fallout from the dispute left the AL splintered into two factions, with the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox on one side, and the other five teams on the other. "The Loyal Five," as they were called, threatened to go off and start their own league. The Yankees and Sox scoffed, wishing them luck with a league that was missing its three biggest markets. The five teams eventually relented.

The dispute carried longer-term implications, though. After the 1919 season and the ensuing Black Sox scandal, no one was going to trade with Charlie Comiskey and Chicago. With the rest of the league still seething over the Mays affair, the Yankees and Red Sox found only themselves as potential trading partners. Frazee's mounting financial woes, along with his friendship with the Yankees' owners (Frazee's offices were next door to the Yankees' in midtown Manhattan), further ensured that the two teams would make a lot more trades in the coming years. Many of those proved to be major heists for the Yankees.

Russell never panned out, and McGraw bounced around for a few years, without helping anyone. Meanwhile Mays dominated in 1920 and 1921 in New York, going 53-20 with stellar ERAs, serving as the staff ace.

January 3, 1920: Purchased Babe Ruth from Boston Red Sox for $125,000 and a $300,000 loan.

Ruth wanted more money, his off-field meanderings were wilder — and potentially more damaging — than accounts at the time let on, and Frazee was strapped. Amazingly, this may not have been the most knowingly one-sided trade of the Frazee era, at least at the time. More on that in a bit.

THE HARRY FRAZEE YEARS, PART 2
The last few trades of the Frazee era were knowingly lopsided. Like a poker player low on chips in a tournament who wants to help his friend the chip leader, Frazee knew he was going to sell out, liked the Yankees owners, and wanted to inflict revenge on Ban Johnson and the rest of baseball. He'd already shown he had no problem making deals that amounted to glorified cash grabs for elite talent. Those deals arguably compromised the integrity of the prevailing system more than the Babe Ruth trade.

December 15, 1920: Traded Muddy Ruel, Del Pratt, Sammy Vick and Hank Thormahlen to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Waite Hoyt, Harry Harper, Wally Schang and Mike McNally.

A second baseman who could hit, Pratt was coming off a solid 1920 campaign, hitting .314 with some sock as league-wide offense exploded with the end of the Deadball Era. Pratt topped .300 for the next four seasons in Boston before calling it quits, giving the Red Sox some value out of the trade. Ruel lacked power but owned a great batting eye which allowed him to work a lot of walks. He was an effective player for 19 seasons, considered one of the intellectuals of the game.

Still, this was another nice haul for the Yankees. An accomplished catcher, Schang was also a terrific hitter, a rarity for the position. His first year with the Yankees may have been his best, as he compiled a standout line of .316 AVG/.428 OBP/.453 SLG. All Hoyt did was embark on a 21-year Hall of Fame career, heading a pitching staff that along with the Murderer's Row offense won three World Series and six AL pennants in an eight-year stretch from 1921 to 1928.

December 20, 1921: Traded Roger Peckinpaugh, Jack Quinn, Rip Collins and Bill Piercy to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Everett Scott, Bullet Joe Bush and Sad Sam Jones.

Peckinpaugh was a great player after leaving New York — but the Red Sox weren't the beneficiaries, having flipped him soon after this deal with the Yankees. The shortstop excelled with the Washington Senators, winning the Most Valuable Player award in 1925. The Yankees were upset that Peckinpaugh committed a key error in the 1921 World Series, one that helped seal his team's fate. Four years later, in his MVP season no less, Peckinpaugh committed eight errors in the 1925 Series, becoming the goat once more, this time in Washington. The Yankees had to figure Jack Quinn was nearing the end when they dealt him at age 37. But the wily righty played 12 more seasons, including some good ones in Boston (a 3.63 ERA in his four years there, in a league where the average ERA was well over 4.00).

Still, this was another winner for the Yankees. Scott was a lousy hitter, but he was a reliable shortstop who was so durable that he owned the consecutive games played record before Lou Gehrig broke it. Meanwhile Bush and Jones teamed with Hoyt to give the Yankees three very good starters for much of their 1920s dynasty.

February 24, 1922: Lost Alex Ferguson to Boston Red Sox on waivers.

July 23, 1922: Traded Chick Fewster, Elmer Miller, Johnny Mitchell, Lefty O'Doul and $50,000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Joe Dugan and Elmer Smith.

The Jumping Joe Dugan trade was most notable for inspiring the concept of trade deadlines. Still, this wasn't as bad for Boston as the next two deals.

January 3, 1923: Traded Al DeVormer and cash to Boston Red Sox in exchange for George Pipgras and Harvey Hendrick.

Pitchers! Get your red-hot pitchers heeeere! Frazee apparently was gunning to become the first MLB owner to single-handedly stock a league rival with an entire pitching staff from scratch. Hendrick never saw much action in New York. But Pipgras gave the Yankees yet another reliable starter (the Yankees pitching was underrated in those days because of the presence of Ruth, Gehrig and other big bats, but this was a strong staff). All the Sox got back was DeVormer, another non-talent with a brief and forgettable career, and the ever-present throw-in, moolah.

January 30, 1923: Traded Camp Skinner, Norm McMillan, George Murray and $50,000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Herb Pennock.

Maybe the most egregious of all the Frazee deals, a final lopsided trade in anger before the end of his reign. Pennock was yet another Hall of Fame pitcher traded in his prime, completing the arming of the Yankees' superstaff. Skinner had 13 at-bats with Boston, then never played again. McMillan was a half-decent utilityman who last only one season with the Red Sox. George Murray was an awful pitcher who compiled a 5.38 career ERA before calling it quits a few years later. You have to wonder what might have become of those Red Sox teams had they merely stood pat with Ruth, plus all their pitching talent. Though the roster was aging somewhat, a few well-placed additions could have made them a threat during the '20s.

THE BOB QUINN YEARS
Quinn was part of a syndicate that bought out Frazee. The syndicate's biggest moneyman died, though, without making provision for the Sox in his will. Lacking his own money, Quinn tried to back out of the deal and pay back his backers. It wasn't that easy, though. Unable to get his money out, Quinn presided over some of the worst Red Sox teams of all-time, including a 1932 team that went 43-111. Like Frazee, Quinn was forced to dash for cash and unload high-priced, highly talented players whenever possible. The result was handful of deals that further hurt the Sox, including a historically bad deal in 1930.

December 10, 1924: Traded Mike McNally to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Howie Shanks.

December 15, 1924: Claimed Steve O'Neill from Boston Red Sox on waivers.

May 5, 1925: Traded Ray Francis and $9,000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Bobby Veach and Alex Ferguson.

June 15, 1926: Claimed Roy Carlyle from Boston Red Sox on waivers.

January 29, 1930: Purchased Ken Williams from Boston Red Sox.

May 6, 1930: Traded Cedric Durst and $50,000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Red Ruffing.

Cedric Durst's playing career with the Red Sox had about as much staying power as Fred Durst's musical career did on the Top 40. Ruffing enjoyed a 22-year Hall of Fame career. In fact, using only his Yankees stats, he would have still been a deserving Hall inductee. Ruffing went 231-124 (.651) from 1930 to 1946 with the Yankees, with a 3.47 ERA. This was during one of the most prolific offensive eras in MLB history, when league ERAs were around 4.50, sometimes higher.

At first glance, this trade may not have looked all that lopsided at the time, as Ruffing was just 39-96 lifetime with the Red Sox when the deal was made. But looking beyond won-lost record is an essential skill in evaluating pitchers, both now and 75 years ago. Ruffing was a talented righty who struggled early in his career mostly due to forces beyond his control — bad defense behind him, and little run support. His career blossomed once he joined a winning club, though. Ruffing was not only an elite pitcher. He was also one of the best hitting pitchers of all time, with 36 career homers and a bunch of pinch-hitting appearances — many of them successful. Ruffing did all this while standing on a left foot that was missing four toes, the result of a mining accident. He was drafted for World War II, a stunning development given his age outnumbered his toes by 32 at the time.

June 5, 1932: Traded Ivy Andrews, Hank Johnson and $50,000 to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Danny MacFayden.

August 1, 1932: Traded Gordon Rhodes to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Wilcy Moore.

THE YAWKEY YEARS
The Yawkey family's history owning the Red Sox traces from 1933 — when Tom Yawkey came into a huge inheritance at age 30 and bought the team — to just a few years ago, when John Henry bought the team from the family trust. Tom Yawkey's history with the Red Sox was highlighted by decades of racism; the Red Sox were the last MLB team to integrate.

When not refusing to sign great players because of the color of their skin, the Yawkey and his successors made plenty of ill-advised moves for other reasons. They shelled out big bucks for players well past their prime, made rash deals to cover for their holes in the roster, and generally kept the Sox mired in mediocrity (or worse) for much of their history. The facile explanation was the Curse of Babe Ruth. The real explanation was incompetence. It took a bunch of signings and purchases of young players in other leagues-led by Ted Williams being shipped in from the West Coast-to finally turn the tide.

May 12, 1933: Sold George Pipgras and Billy Werber to Boston Red Sox for $100,000.

Flush with cash, this was Yawkey's first deal, and a big-money one at that. Pipgras had one more decent year left before he crapped out, but Werber was just coming into his own. His first full season in Boston, 1934, was his best: .321/.397 /.472.

May 15, 1934: Traded Lyn Lary to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Freddie Muller and $20,000.

February 17, 1937: Purchased Babe Dahlgren from Boston Red Sox.

September 11, 1940: Purchased Red Nonnenkamp from Boston Red Sox.

June 18, 1946: Sold Bill Zuber to Boston Red Sox.

After World War II, the flow of Yankees-Sox trades dried up dramatically. Expansion swelled the ranks of potential trading partners over the years, creating a world of opportunity well beyond the Carl Mays/Harry Frazee-induced Yankee-Red Sox Polka of the 1920s. But looking back over each franchise's history, a clear pattern emerges: New York and Boston rarely made significant trades with each other when both teams were good-one or the other almost always had to be struggling, most often the Red Sox.

Legend has it that somewhere around this period, the Yankees' Larry MacPhail and Yawkey got drunk one night and agreed to trade Joe DiMaggio for Ted Williams. Both MacPhail and Yawkey were err … skilled with libations, so that part of the story rings true. After the 1946 World Series, Williams was unpopular in Boston. This despite being an otherworldly player, a far better hitter than even the great DiMaggio. There was also a theory that Williams would hit better with the short porch in Yankee Stadium, while DiMaggio would thrive aiming for the Green Monster, instead of Yankee Stadium's Death Valley in left-center. MacPhail and Yawkey supposedly sobered up, and the deal never happened. Talk about What Ifs.

August 22, 1952: Purchased Ray Scarborough from Boston Red Sox.

March 14, 1957: Traded Bill Renna to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Eli Grba and Gordie Windhorn.

June 12, 1962: Traded Billy Gardner to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Tom Umphlett and cash.

August 3, 1967: Traded Elston Howard to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Pete Magrini and a player to be named later; New York Yankees received Ron Klimkowski (August 8, 1967).

The Yankees supposedly gave the Sox Elston Howard as a kind gesture. He was 38 by then, so a more likely reason could be that he was done as a useful player. Revisionist history tells us that Howard's veteran leadership was a key factor on Boston's Impossible Dream season in '67. Or maybe it had something to do with Yaz winning the Triple Crown. Y'know, crazy stuff like that.

August 8, 1967: Purchased Bob Tillman from Boston Red Sox.

Notice how the teams made no deals for years. Then when the Yankees went downhill in the mid- to late-60s, the two teams started trading again. Hmmm…

May 17, 1968: Purchased John Wyatt from Boston Red Sox.

March 22, 1972: Traded Danny Cater and a player to be named later (Mario Guerrero) to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Sparky Lyle.

Bill Lee said that the Red Sox traded Lyle because they didn't like the fact that he was a party animal and an individualist. Who could blame the Sox for trading him? After all, they'd never before traded a party animal/individualist and come to regret it. Oh wait…

Not only that, but in dumping Carl Mays for a batch of scrapple more than 50 earlier, the Sox had shown the dangers of rashly discarding talented players for reasons other than on-field performance.

The Sox nominally needed a first baseman after dumping George Scott, which could perhaps explain why they dealt with the Yankees, and acquired Cater. But this wasn't a big bopper poised to hit 30 homers at Fenway. Cater hit .301 in 1970 with the Yankees. But he was a singles hitter who didn't walk, Ken Harvey without the 50 extra pounds, or Doug Mientkiewicz with less plate discipline and defense. Under Gabe Paul and George Steinbrenner, the Yankees actually made several shrewd moves in the 70s, acquiring Lyle, Graig Nettles, Lou Piniella and others in lopsided deals.

September 1, 1994: Purchased Scott Bankhead from Boston Red Sox.

It took 22 years for the two teams to consummate any kind of trade. The first time they did, it was for pedestrian reliever Scott Bankhead, in a cash deal. This was also during the labor stoppage of 1994, during the time when teams still thought it would blow over and play would resume. Bankhead became a free agent at season's end, though he later re-signed with the Yankees. Their reward? A 6.00 ERA in 1995, before Bankhead hung 'em up.

August 13, 1997: Traded Tony Armas Jr. and a player to be named later (Jim Mecir) to Boston Red Sox in exchange for Mike Stanley and Randy Brown.

Finally, the Sox get some measure of revenge — for Ruth, Pennock, Ruffing, Lyle, and the rest. Stanley was a capable veteran hitter who gave the Yankees a late-season .287/.388/.483 boost. But New York fell short of the big prize that year, and Stanley left at season's end. Meanwhile Mecir eventually became a solid reliever, his best years coming in Oakland.

Armas turned out to be the linchpin of the deal. When the cash-strapped Montreal Expos made it known that Cy Young winner and all-world talent Pedro Martínez was available after the 1997 season, every team with ambulatory young talent mobilized to try and get him. The winner proved to be the Red Sox, who packaged Armas with another projected stud, Carl Pavano, to get Pedro. All Martínez did was put up the best multi-year pitching run since Sandy Koufax, or maybe even better than Koufax. The Red Sox exorcised the curse that never was seven years later, and the Yankees saw their dynasty end after the 2001 season, with their pitching decaying ever since. Pavano still haunts the Yankees today, banking eight figures a year for being the most accomplished simulated game pitcher of all-time.