With the Major League Baseball’s trade deadline looming this month there’s always a chance that a player you like is going to get traded. Sometimes when this happens and you see the player in that new uniform it just doesn’t compute.

There are many other names I considered ]]>

With the Major League Baseball’s trade deadline looming this month there’s always a chance that a player you like is going to get traded. Sometimes when this happens and you see the player in that new uniform it just doesn’t compute.

There are many other names I considered for this list, Scottie Pippen on the Houston Rockets; Babe Ruth on the Boston Braves, Bobby Hull as a Winnipeg Jet, Hakeem Olajuwon as a Raptor, Frank Thomas on the Oakland A’s, Franco Harris as a Seahawk; Thurman Thomas as a Dolphin, Art Monk on the Jets; the list really is endless depending on where your sports allegiance lies. However, for whatever reason, these 12 really stand out to me.

Of course, everyone has a player they’ve seen leave or get traded to a new team and it just never looked right to them, so if you have someone that stands out in your mind that just never looked quite right, please let us know about it in the comments. I’m sure the list will be quite endless and fun to read.

12 Joe Montana – Kansas City Chiefs

While Montana achieved some success in his two years with the Chiefs, 29 TDs and 16 INTs, while leading them to the AFC Championship Game in 1994, no one will ever look at him and not think of him as the Super Bowl winning quarterback of the Bill Walsh 49ers.

11 Willie Mays – New York Mets

The “Say Hey Kid” just couldn’t give it up and at age 41 was dealt to the upstart New York Mets in 1972. Willie slogged it out for a year and a half, batting .267 and .211 before finally calling it quits.

10 Karl Malone – Los Angeles Lakers

Karl Malone, desperate for his first NBA Championship, did the unheard of and left the Utah Jazz in 2003 to join Gary Payton (another guy who looked out of place) and the Lakers for one last gasp. Malone played 42 games, scored 13.2 points per game (the first time he’d even been under 20 ppg since his rookie year of 1986), failed to win that title, and retired.

9 Jerry Rice – Oakland Raiders

Jerry Rice playing for the Raiders was very strange, but it was the Raiders so I guess that was kind of cool. Plus he still had some gas in the tank, catching 83 and 92 balls in his first two years there. We might have forgiven him for that move. Unfortunately, he didn’t stop there. Jerry also played briefly for the Seahawks and almost played for the Broncos. Seeing him in Raiders gear was one thing, but after that it just made our brain hurt.

8 Joe Namath – Los Angeles Rams

“Broadway” Joe playing in California just didn’t make sense. The man who guaranteed a Super Bowl win for the Jets (and delivered it) spent his final season as a professional football player starting four games for the Rams, completing 47% of his passes, then hobbled off into the sunset only to later become known to a generation for trying to steal a kiss from Suzy Kolber on Sunday Night Football.

7 Robert Parish – Charlotte Hornets

“The Chief” on any team other than the Celtics with his buddies Larry Bird and Kevin McHale just did looked wrong. Even worse than that he was playing for a team not even the fans of the town they called home cared about. He didn’t exactly thrive there either, averaging 4.8 and 3.9 points per game, then joining the Bulls and averaging 3.7 ppg before finally retiring.

6 Johnny Unitas – San Diego Chargers

Johnny U in anything other than a Colts uniform is almost sacrilegious. The greatest quarterback of his generation (and some still say of all-time) is a Colt. Unfortunately Johnny wanted one more year. A year that saw him start just four games, complete 44.7% of his passes with 3 TDs and 7 picks before doing what he should have done the year before and retiring.

5 Patrick Ewing – Seattle Supersonics

When you think of Patrick Ewing and his teams you think of Georgetown and the Knicks. You don’t think of Ewing going to Seattle and averaging 9.6 points per game and then to the Orlando Magic where he lowered the bar to 6.0 ppg (the only two seasons in which he averaged less than 15 ppg).

4 O.J. Simpson – San Francisco 49ers

Since most people today only know “The Juice” for one uniform (an orange jumpsuit), many have forgotten that the legendary Buffalo Bill finished his career with two less-than-stellar seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. His knees were pretty much shot, but the future acquitted double-murder squeezed out 593 and 460 yards before hanging up his helmet and moving on to other, more pressing issues, like trying to find the real killer of his ex-wife and her friend.

3 Hank Aaron – Milwaukee Brewers

Hank Aaron had one of the greatest, if not the greatest, baseball careers of all-time, but seeing Hank hanging around, playing designated hitter for two seasons for the Brewers at age 41 and 42 is not the way his fans prefer to remember him. Nor do they like remembering the career .305 hitter batting .234 and .229 in his two seasons with the Brew Crew. Even the greatest sometimes don’t know when to say when.

2 Emmitt Smith – Arizona Cardinals

It’s not that Emmitt did horribly once he left the Cowboys to play for the Cardinals, well okay, he did average just 2.8 yards per carry in his first of two seasons there, it’s the fact that some players are known for being with one team because they achieved greatness there and playing anywhere else just goes so against the grain. Mix in the fact that Emmitt went to the Cardinals, a team not even the hometown fans cared about at the time, and it almost just became sad.

1 Michael Jordan – Washington Wizards

For Chicago Bulls fans, the last game Michael Jordan ever played was when he drained that three over Byron Russell to win his sixth NBA Championship. The man who played for the Wizards three years later was someone else. I think I can understand where they’re coming from.

So yeah, this is when the daily comic will usually run. I also promise that Family Circus will never find its way to these pages in a less-than-ironic fashion.

Via Explosm, probably my favorite comic site on the Web

I think now we ]]>

So yeah, this is when the daily comic will usually run. I also promise that Family Circus will never find its way to these pages in a less-than-ironic fashion.

Via Explosm, probably my favorite comic site on the Web

I think now we all know a little bit more what it’s like to be Patrick Ewing.

And if you’re a small comic writer looking to be seen by a larger audience, feel free to send me your site or your best comic at roomtonecsATblogofhilarityDOTcom.