Let's Make a Deal Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lou Brock

Left fielder Lou Brock debuted for the Cubs in 1961 but they were disappointed with his production, so they dealt him to St Louis for Broglio in 1964. Batting .348, Brock led the Cardinals to the World Series that year whilst Broglio returned an ERA over 4.00 and a 4-7 record. Broglio's career lasted two more years whereas Brock stayed with the Cards until 1979, collecting a second WS victory in 1967 along the way. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1985 with 900 RBIs, 938 SBs and more than 3,000 hits. With hindsight, this deal can easily be classified as one of the most lop-sided trades in baseball history.

Of the alternatives: career .358 hitter Rogers Hornsby did leave the Cubs to go to the Cardinals, but that was in 1932. Ron Santo played in the same era as Broglio, but he stayed with the Cubs for almost his whole career, playing from 1960 until 1973 and leaving only to cross town for a final season with the White Sox. Red Schoendienst played for the Cardinals from 1945 until leaving for the Giants in 1956. He returned to St Louis from the Milwaukee Braves in 1961 for the final years of his career.

Answer: Jeff Bagwell

Jeff Bagwell was born in Boston and the Red Sox drafted him in 1989 out of the University of Hartford. Still played Double-A ball at the time, the Red Sox traded Bagwell to the Astros in 1990 for the 37-year old reliever Larry Anderson. The Red Sox were swept by the As in the ACLS that year, Anderson pitching just 22 innings and managing to record one save in four opportunities. Bagwell, meanwhile, played 15 years for the Astros, batting .297 with 449 homers and more than 1,500 RBIs. A fair deal if you're a Texan, for sure!

Catcher Carlton Fisk played more than a decade for the Red Sox before going to the White Sox as a free agent after the 1980 season. Derek Bell came to the Astros in 1995 after two seasons at each of the Blue Jays and Padres. Craig Biggio was drafted by the Astros out of Seton Hall University and played his whole career, from 1988 until 2007, in Houston.

Answer: Dennis Eckersley

Buckner's booted ball at first base in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the Mets unquestionably prolonged by more than 20 years, Red Sox fans' wait for the championship. Dennis Eckersley enjoyed considerable success as a starter, first with the Indians and then with the Red Sox -- he was a 20-game winner in 1978. Between 1980 and 1984, though, he returned a 43-48 record, so the Red Sox traded him to the Cubs for Buckner. It was not until he went to Oakland in 1987 that Eckersley's potential as a closer emerged. Ironically, he returned to Boston for the final season of his career, in 1998. His astounding total of 390 saves assured his election to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, in 2004.

Orlando Cepeda played a single season in Boston, the penultimate of his 16 years in the Majors, in 1973. Similarly, Rickey Henderson played just one year in Boston, in 2002 at the end of his career. Richard 'Goose' Gossage, another of the game's great closers (310 lifetime saves) played for nine different MLB clubs in his 22-year career, but none of those were the Red Sox.

Answer: John Smoltz

Detroit was Doyle Alexander's ninth different team in an 18-year Major League career. He went 9-0 with a 1.53 ERA for the Tigers as they won the division, but lost both of his starts in the playoffs as they lost 4-1 to the Twins. In 20 years with the Braves, John Smoltz was an 8-time All Star, a Cy Young winner (in 1996) and returned a 12-4 record in 20 post-season starts. After arm trouble forced him into the bullpen in 2001, he turned out to be a great closer, finishing his career with 154 saves. Only Smoltz and Dennis Eckersley have both won 20 games and recorded 50+ saves in a single season. The Braves retired Smoltz's #29 in 2012.

Of the alternatives: Tom Glavine was drafted by the Braves after also being drafted by the L.A. Kings of the NHL; Greg Maddux, the first pitcher to win four consecutive Cy Young awards, came to the Braves from the Cubs after the 1992 season; and Jim Bunning left Detroit for the Phillies after the 1963 season.

Answer: Christy Mathewson

Amos Rusie had eight 20-win and, remarkably, four 30-win seasons playing for the New York Giants in the 1890s. The Veterans Committee inducted him into the Hall of Fame in 1977. When the Cincinnati Reds signed him in December 1900, though, he was at the end of his career and he played just the one season for them.

The man they traded to get him, Christy Mathewson, would go on to rank in the all-time top 10 in numerous categories including wins, ERA and shutouts. Matthewson played for the Giants from 1900 until 1916, finishing his career with 373 wins (still a National League record 100 years later), an ERA of 2.13, 79 shutouts and more than 2,500 strikeouts.

He threw three shutouts in a single World Series in 1905. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1936 as one of the famous "First Five" inductees along with Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Walter Johnson and Honus Wagner. Mathewson died of TB at just 45 in 1925, so he was the only one of the original five not to survive to attend the induction.

Answer: Kris Draper

Drafted by the Jets in 1989, Kris Draper played only 20 games in four seasons before he was traded to the Detroit Red Wings for $1. Over the next 18 seasons, he would become one of only five players in Red Wings history to play more than 1,000 games for the franchise.

He retired in 2011 having scored 161 goals and recorded 203 assists in 1,157 games -- not a bad performance by the player nicknamed "The One Dollar Man".

Answer: Scott Niedermayer

Although a journeyman who played for seven different franchises in an 11-year NHL career, Tom Kurvers was a member of the Montreal team that won the 1986 Stanley Cup. When Toronto traded for him in 1989 and only gave up a 1991 draft pick, they must have thought they got a good deal. The New Jersey Devils used that draft pick to select defenseman Scott Niedermayer with the third overall pick of the 1991 draft. He would play 36 times for his native Canada, winning the World Cup and two Olympic gold medals. He also played for the Devils for the next 14 years before going to Anaheim at the end of his career. He retired in 2010 having played 1,263 NFL games, scoring 172 goals and providing a massive 568 assists. Niedermayer won the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 1995, 2000 and 2003 and then added a fourth victory with the Mighty Ducks in 2007. The New Jersey Devils retired Niedermayer's #27 in 2004, only the third player so honored by the franchise.

The alternatives are three players who began their NHL careers with the Maple Leafs... Toronto let Steve Thomas go to the Blackhawks after three seasons in the league -- he would go on to play more than 1,200 NHL games. Vincent Damphousse played his first five season in Toronto before leaving for Edmonton in 1991 -- he would play more than 1,300 NHL games and win the 1993 Stanley Cup with Montreal. Luke Richardson played four years in Toronto before leaving for Edmonton in 1991. He played more than 1,400 NHL games before retiring in 2009.

Answer: Steve Young

Founded for the 1976 NFL expansion, the Bucs began by losing their first 26 straight games. In 1979, they became the first expansion team to win a division, win a playoff game and to host or play in a conference championship. It was a false dawn, though, and their fans had to endure a run of 14 consecutive losing seasons.

In the middle of that run, the Bucs drafted a young QB in the 1985 Supplemental Draft. His record as a starter over the next two seasons was a particularly underwhelming 3-16, so the Bucs traded his to the San Francisco 49ers in 1987 for second-round and fourth-round draft picks.

The Bucs used those picks to draft linebacker Winston Moss and wide receiver Bruce Hill. "Who?" You might ask. Meanwhile, the young QB sat on the 49ers bench watching Joe Montana prove why he is the greatest QB in NFL history.

When Montana's days were done, Steve Young took over and won six NFL passing titles, earned seven Pro Bowl selections, won three Superbowls (including one as MVP), and retired in 1999 with (at the time) the highest quarterback passer rating of all time (yes, even higher than Montana). Oh, and of course he was elected to the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, in 2005.

Answer: Brett Favre

After four NFL passes during the 1991 season, two of which were interceptions, the Atlanta Falcons decided they had seen enough of Brett Favre. They sent him north to Green Bay in exchange for the #16 pick in the 1992 draft, which they used to pick up running back Tony Smith (who lasted just three seasons in Atlanta). Three years later, Favre led the Packers to the 1996 Superbowl title.

The rest, as they say, is history, as Favre proceeded to rewrite the NFL's record books over the next 15 years.

Answer: Herschel Walker

The Vikings traded five players and six draft picks to persuade the Dallas Cowboys to part with Herschel Walker. Sure, Walker had been a great (perhaps the greatest) college running back in winning the 1982 Heisman Trophy at the University of Georgia.

In the end, Walker spent less than three years in Minnesota, without a 1,000-year rushing season, before the Vikings tried to cut their losses by trading him to the Eagles. The damage was already done, though, and the loss of all those draft picks haunted the Vikings for years. Meanwhile, Dallas used those extra draft picks to augment their squad with the likes of RB Emmitt Smith, DT Russell Maryland, WR Alvin Harper, LB Dixon Edwards and a couple of DBs, Kevin Smith and Darren Woodson.

The Cowboys were one of the dominant teams in the league throughout the 1990s, winning three Superbowls during the decade.