Baseball Hall of Famers Who Spent All But One Season With the Same Team

New Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Bagwell became one of the rare modern day players who spent his entire career with one club, but he came very close to having begun his tenure with a team in the opposite league. Having been drafted by the Red Sox and spending his entire minor league stint in their farm system, Boston dealt their future first baseman on the last day of the trading deadline in 1990.

In exchange for Bagwell, Boston received from the Astros pitcher Larry Anderson in an effort to strengthen the Red Sox rotation for the post season. Five months later Bagwell put on a Houston uniform, the only city he would ever represent on the baseball diamond.

Had the Red Sox not been in contention back in 1990 Bagwell, instead of being traded, would most likely have been given a September call up like the rest of the club’s top prospects. That move would have put him among a short list of fellow Hall of Famers, perhaps the “all but one club,” who spent all but one of their big league seasons with the same team.

Here are the eight members who share that distinction.

Yogi Berra

The iconic personality will always be remembered as a catcher with the Yankees, but he did spend one season with the Mets in 1965.

Lefty Gomez

His Hall numbers came as a hurler for the Yankees, but he did spend 1943 with the Washington Senators.

Hank Greenberg

Besides being for over a decade the key slugger in the Detroit lineup, the outfielder suited up for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947.

Harmon Killebrew

Forever associated with the Minnesota Twins organization, the slugger spent his last season with the Kansas City Royals in 1975.

Ryne Sandberg

The Phillies brought the second baseman through their farm system and even brought him to the Major Leagues in 1981, but after a trade he would forever be synonymous with the Chicago Cubs.

Ron Santo

Like Sandberg, the perennial All-Star third baseman is synonymous with the North Siders, even though his last at bats were taken as a member of the White Sox.

John Smoltz

One of the formidable arms in the long time rotation of the Atlanta Braves, the right hander split his swan song in 2009 between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals.

Warren Spahn

Four decades before Smoltz the rotation in Atlanta was led by Spahn, who also had a final season split between two teams, the New York Mets and the San Francisco Giants in 1965.

Source by Doug Poe