Gathering Clues in a Larry Elliot Trade

Larry Elliot was a minor league slugger that made the majors for a few seasons with first Pittsburgh, then the Mets. As was the case with players such as Elliot, he bounced around for awhile in the AAA's for a few teams before calling it a career.

In 1968 Elliot starts the season with Vancouver, having been traded to the A's the year before. He moves to Seattle and the Angels' chain during the season, then back to the A's and AAA Iowa for 1968. Curious.

I found this article from The Des Moines Register of April 6, 1969, 

Parsing together the interesting pieces regarding the move of the Vancouver A's AAA team to Iowa:

" An indiscreet move had (cost?) Vancouver yet another muscleman before former lowan Phil Seghi was brought in as the new farm director. -  Phil's predecessor... gave outfielder Larry Elliot to Seattle in exchange for a first baseman who flopped."

Okay, I can't find right now who else was involved in that deal, so we go to the 1968 Vanouver Mounties Baseball Reference page  and see if we can find a first baseman who "flopped" after coming to Vancouver from Seattle.

The only player that fits the bill is Charlie Vinson!

For the entire season, Vinson hit just .215 with 6 HR and 24 RBI, while Elliot hit .232, 13 HR and 71 RBI. No Vancouver player hit more than 10 HR that season.

To be fair, the former Angel first baseman Vinson had several good AAA seasons afterward, while Elliot would have just one more year in baseball.

The Register article talked about how the Iowa club would be much better than they were in Vancouver. Well, the Mounties were 58-88, the Oaks were 62-88.

Elliot for Vinson in the trade, can someone find the date?

Elliot pic from Trading Card Database, Vinson from Baseball Birthdays