In the trade-crazy world of professional sports, some trades still stand out as being…unusually unusual.

BEER FOR A PITCHER:

Pitcher Nigel Thatch of the Schaumburg Flyers of the Northern League, a professional baseball league in the northern United States and Canada, was traded in May 2006. The Flyers, according to the official league announcement, “assigned the contract of RHP Nigel Thatch (Rookie) to Fullerton of the Golden Baseball League in exchange for one pallet (60 cases) of Budweiser beer.”

…ANNOUNCER FOR A CARTOON CHARACTER:

In 2006 NBC took over the Sunday night TV broadcasts of NFL games. They wanted Al Michaels, who had been with ABC for 26 years and the announcer for Monday Night Football for 10, to host the show. The Walt Disney Company, who owned ABC, wanted something unusual in return for Michaels: 26 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons that Walt Disney made in 1927. He’d done them for Universal Studios, so he never owned the rights to them, which is why he created Mickey Mouse (the two characters look very similar). Disney had always wanted the rights back, and NBC now owned Universal, so they agreed to trade the rights to Michaels…for the rights to Oswald.

…BALLS FOR A BALLPLAYER:

In 1989 pitcher Tim Fortugno was traded by the minor-league Reno Silver Sox to the Milwaukee Brewers organization for $2,500…and 144 baseballs.

…CATCHER FOR HIMSELF:

Harry Chiti was a journeyman catcher who played for the Chicago Cubs, Kansas City Athletics, Detroit Tigers, and New York Mets in the 1950s and ’60s. His career statistics are unimpressive, but he does hold claim to one fascinating piece of baseball history. In 1962 the New York Mets bought the rights to Chiti from the Cleveland Indians for “a player to be named later in the season.” The Mets then traded him back to Cleveland. So the player the Indians ended up getting later in the season: Harry Chiti.