Michigan Form 3023: Fill & Download for Free

I’m going to cheat, and give my answer for one National League team and one American League team. I grew up as a Cardinals fan and died a little when they lost the World Series to the Tigers in 1968. A few years later, I moved to Michigan and adopted the Tigers as “my” team.In 1964, the Cardinals pulled off one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history, when they picked up an underperforming outfielder named Lou Brock from the Cubs in exchange for journeyman right hander Ernie Broglio ( there were a couple of throw-in players from both teams, but none of them figured in their teams’ fortunes). The Cubs were coming off their first winning season in 17 years with a core of quality players including Billy Williams, Ernie Banks, Ron Santo, 20-game winner Dick Ellsworth, and former Rookie-of-the-Year Ken Hubbs, along with Brock who showed promise but had been a bit of a disappointment as a center fielder. They figured 1964 might be the year they finally made a run for the pennant. Then everything went wrong. Hubbs tragically died in an off-season airplane crash. Ellsworth developed arm trouble. And, in an attempt to bring a solid starter to their rotation, they traded the mercurial Brock for Broglio (who turned out to have arm problems as well).The Cards had made pennant runs in 1962 and 1963 but had fallen short. With the retirement of Stan Musial, they needed a spark plug to go with stars Bob Gibson, Ken Boyer, Dick Groat, Bill White and Curt Flood. They certainly got that in Brock (after moving him to left field, where his defensive shortcomings were less harmful). Brock helped the Cardinals win three pennants and two World Series. He ended his Hall-of-Fame career with 3023 hits and 938 stolen bases. So yeah, that was a great trade for my Cardinals. Meanwhile, the bad-luck Cubs had to wait another 50+ years to win their pennant.My other team, the Tigers, pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Marlins after the 2007 season which brought Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit in exchange for six prospects, none of whom contributed with Miami (although one of them, Andrew Miller, developed into a very good reliever with Boston and Cleveland after the Marlins gave up on him).Cabrera instantly became a fixture with the Tigers where he won two MVPs, the Triple Crown, batted .315 over 12 seasons and led Detroit to four division titles and a pennant. Willis, the other party to the trade, was a major disappointment, but all in all, the Tigers got a great deal. Hard to tell what the Marlins were thinking. Cabrera was just entering his peak years, and Willis had had a productive year in 2007. But they were headed nowhere, and apparently were willing to take a crap shoot on six prospects, hoping that two or three of them would pan out (they didn’t, of course). The Marlins were also trying to reduce their payroll, continuing the fire sale they had been holding ever since their out-of-nowhere World Series win in 2003.