Transforming Transactions: More Than Meets the Eye

Last time we looked at Ray Crone and his transactions, most of which seemed to be by Toronto. This time we look closer at a deal involving him that certainly is more complicated than earlier thought.

July 15, 1958: Traded by the San Francisco Giants to Toronto (International) for Don Johnson.

That is what Crone's Baseball reference page has for the deal that sent Crone to Toronto for the first time.

But in checking Johnson's Baseball Reference minor league page, we find that Johnson winds up right back in Toronto, and we found that he was packaged with Crone in a Toronto sale later.

I also found this tale from the Times-News of Feb. 9, 1966 in a story about Jack Kent Cooke getting a NHL franchise:

"Back in 1958 when he still owned the Toronto baseball club, for example, he had a pitcher named Don Johnson whom the San Francisco Giants suddenly took a shine to. Cooke talked the Giants into giving him three players for Johnson and a fourth to be delivered later.
The Giants sent pitchers Ernie Broglio and Ray Crone and outfielder Jim King to Toronto.
Then when the season was over they sent Cooke the fourth player, Johnson."

According to that article, Johnson was the PBTL in the deal for himself.

But what about Broglio and King? How do they enter the deal?

This article in the Montreal Gazette of July 16, 1958 may get us closer to the answer:

“Toronto of the International League today sent pitcher Don Johnson, formerly with the New York Yankees, to San Francisco of the National league in return for three players. He is a right hander. 

Leaf president Jack Kent Cooke said the Toronto club would get Ernie Broglio, a pitcher with an 8-1 record this season with Phoenix of the Pacific Coast League: Jim King, who came to San Francisco this year in a player swap with the St. Louis Cardinals, and one player still not named.”

Hm. No mention of Crone in that one. Broglio and King get sent back to the Giants after the season in this article from the Miami News of Sep. 8, 1958... 

"(The Giants have) Recalled from Toronto were pitcher Ernie Broglio and outfielder Jim King."

Broglio gets traded to the Cardinals in the off-season, but King goes back to Toronto. From  the Spokane Daily Chronicle of Feb. 25, 1959...

"Five members of last year's Toronto Maple Leaf's club have signed 1959 contracts....

....signed were second baseman Mike Goliat, third-baseman Stan Jok, shortstop Hector rodriguez, outfielder Jim King and pitcher Jim Pearce."

Can't find where King would have been released or sold to Toronto, an independent AAA team during this time. King's major league Baseball reference page only mentions the following:

July 15, 1958: Sent from the San Francisco Giants to Toronto (International) in an unknown transaction. 

Well, if the deal was on that day, we have solved that unknown transaction. King's page also has this deal from Toronto to Cleveland:

Before 1960 Season: Obtained by the Cleveland Indians from Toronto (International) as part of a minor league working agreement.  

The Oct. 18, 1960 Toledo Daily Blade has this:

"Jim King, 28-year-old outfielder who won the International League's Most Valuable Player rating last season, has been purchased from Toronto by the Cleveland Indians, the Cleveland club announced today."

It looks like King was Toronto property during the 1960 season, though by then the club was under the Cleveland organization umbrella. After the season, THEN they sold him to Cleveland.

So here's what I can gather happened on July 15, 1958:

The Giants traded pitchers Ray Crone and Ernie Broglio and outfielder jim King and a player to be named later to Toronto of the IL for pitcher Don Johnson. The Giants returned Johnson to Toronto as the player to be named later to close the deal.

A very complicated deal, as it turned out!

King from  www.tradingcarddb.com
Broglio from www.vintagecardtraders.org 
Johnson from  1952toppsbaseballcards.com