This is the latest in my Topps Minus 50 series which addresses transactions and other changes to Major League baseball which might have had an affect on Topps checklists and the like.
In this post, we’ll be looking into one seven-player trade between the Yankees and the Indians.
April 26, 1974
The Cleveland Indians traded Chris Chambliss, Dick Tidrow and Cecil Upshaw to the New York Yankees for Fred Beene, Tom Buskey, Steve Kline and Fritz Peterson.
Although at the time the Yankees players and fans were very concerned about trading four pitchers away, the Yanks came out on top in this transaction. Chambliss and Tidrow were part of the Yankees World Series teams of the second half of the 1970s, but the four Cleveland acquisitions were not particularly outstanding, with the best being arguably rookie reliever Tom Buskey (whose rookie card came in 1975 Topps)
If you go for sabermetrics, the Yankees got a 15.4 WAR out of Chambliss over his Yankees career and a 4.6 WAR out of Tidrow’s Yankee seasons, while the only pitcher that Cleveland got a positive career WAR from was Buskey (2.9 WAR)
While all of the players acquired by the Yankees appeared in 1975 Topps with updated photos, none of the Indians four acquired players had new photos, despite Topps having nearly a full season to take care of business. I checked the boxscores and all four did pitch in 1974 games at Shea (where the Yankees were playing while Yankee Stadium was being renovated).
The Shlabotnik Report 