A tragic end for minor leaguer traded for 10 bats

[ipitch]

Very sad. :cry:

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/2009/03/03/20090303ODDbat-man0303-ON.html

Ask the most hard-core baseball fan about John C. Odom and most likely you'll get a blank stare. Yet millions of people have heard of the slender right-hander.

He was the minor league player traded for 10 maple bats.

Three weeks after the trade, he abruptly left the team.

Six months after the trade, he was dead.

[DodgerBlue8188]

Pretty sad. I understand why they traded for bats. They aren't cheap. But this might be a lesson to never do something like that again for teams.

[Captain Cold Nose]

Curt Flood's fight against the reserve clause came from his dislike of how it seemed to reduce the player to mere property. What would he or any Union leader think of a trade that practically follows that viewpoint?

Trades are a part of the game. That's fine. But these are human beings and despite what some salary critics say, paying somebody for their job does not give an employer the right to treat a person like lumber.

[Paulypal]

Thats about as disgusting as it gets. How about trading him on the surface for a PTBNL or future considerations. Take the bats on the sneak. Not so upstanding but altleast the player isnt embaressed.

To do it openly like that is disgusting.

The guy had problems to begin with so I am not blaming the suicide on the trade. Obviously the guy had mental issues, but killing yourself over anything is inexcusable.

[KevinWI]

Sad story.

I didn't even know you could trade a player for bats. That's absolutely tasteless. I lost a little respect for the game today.

[DownUnderDodger]

I really think this latest story seems a little sensationalistic. The story about Odom being traded for the bats was released at the time it happened and it received plenty of jocular comment at the time.

It is sad that the poor guy is now dead, however it was from something unrelated to baseball, given he was a known "lost youth" who was seemingly more into his guitar than baseball and eventually died of an accidental overdose from heroin, methamphetamine, the stimulant benzylpiperazine and alcohol.

[shake-n-bake]

Amazing how the take on that trade has changed. At the time it was light humor. Even Odom put it in perfect context when he commented how it would make a fun sidenote if he made it to MLB.

As I recall, the team accepting the bats wanted to make a trade for the kid. The bats were a last ditch effort to hash out a deal that had to be hashed out - John Odom couldn't get into Canada to play on the team that owned his contract.

It's very sad the young man is dead. I remember seeing him on TV and liked him. He seemed like a nice kid. The trade, the fans that jeered when he didn't play well (though they're low class in my book), and the pressures of baseball weren't his undoing. He needed to overcome the deamons that had their hooks into him long before the trade for the bats came along.

[KCGHOST]

I think we relating unrelated events and trying to make something of it.

My guess is the kid's demons are far more to blame here than a tacky trade.

[NYMets523]

I agree. If someone should be blamed, how about his friends and family for not having him get help when he was clearly in need of it years ago?

[BradC34]

This is particularly sad for me because I'm from Amarillo. While I understand that heckling is a part of the game, it's kind of sad to see that he took it that hard.

[Captain Cold Nose]

I agree. If someone should be blamed, how about his friends and family for not having him get help when he was clearly in need of it years ago?

That is true, and I don't think anyone here (I hope) is blaming the team. I'm sure his friends and family feel horrible, but sometimes there is only so much one can do for anopther person. We don't know what was done or how much even Odom let on as to being that despondent. No one really may have known.

[steveironcity]

I think we relating unrelated events and trying to make something of it.

My guess is the kid's demons are far more to blame here than a tacky trade.

Yeah. It says he was kicked of his HS team, and the reason he was traded to begin with was because he had a criminal conviction that forbade his entry into Canada. So I doubt the trade, as tacky as it was, caused this man to turn to drugs and alcohol

[riredsox]

I think the trade was the straw that broke the camels back. Who know? My guess is it was a combination of the trade, preexisting bad habits, and maybe some mental issues. To do a thing like publicly trading someone for bats is about as low class as it gets. It's disgusting.