Baseball Shorts: The Player Traded For a Bus

In this episode of “Baseball Shorts” we talk about that one minor league player that was traded for a bus, even though that story is more an urban legend than it is completely true.

The player we are talking about is Charley Pride, best known for his singing career. But during his baseball days, he went up and down white baseball and negro league baseball. It was that time when Negro League baseball was raided by MLB clubs. After being signed by the Boston Red Sox in the 1950’s, he went back to the Negro Leagues eventually.

He ended up with the Louisville Clippers, a new team in the league. And they were money strapped. And that is where the story of the bus comes around the corner. While the urban legend tells us that Pride and a teammate were traded for a bus, the truth is that both were traded for cash. The Louisville Clippers needed cash to buy a bus, so it happened.

Pride ended up with the Birmingham Black Barons. He went on to play several years in the minors, but eventually, Charly Pride hung up his cleats and became a very successful singer in the country and western genre.

What lead him to singing? Actually it was baseball. He went to Helena to play in a semi-pro league. One day, he sang the National Anthem. After each game, Pride and his teammates went to a club, where he started singing.

The period of his greatest musical success was from around 1969 to 1975, when he was the top-selling artist on RCA Records, outselling even Elvis Presley and John Denver. During the peak years of his recording career (1966–1987), he had 52 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 30 of which made it to number one.

Funny how playing baseball can lead to a career in music.