George Foster for Vern Geishert and Frank Duffy: Worst Trade in Giants History

What might have been.

If only the San Francisco Giants teams of the 1970s had someone in their front office with enough vision to retain a promising young right-hand batting left fielder from Tuscaloosa, Alabama by the name of George Foster.

For after trading Foster --early on during an NL West Division winning year -- the Orange & Black proceeded to string together a series of dismal season finishes of  26, 11, 30, 27, 28, 23, 6, 19 and 16 games out of first place.

Meanwhile, the Big Red Machine was rather pleased with the deal.

When you compare the career output of George Arthur Foster to that of pitcher Vern Geishert and shortstop Frank Duffy, it's clear that G-Fans got the raw end of that late-May 1971 transaction, big time.

Granted it took Mr Foster a few seasons to get his act together, but when he did in 1975, he became an essential cog of the Big Red Machine.

Foster tore up the National League with the Reds through 1981 and added four more respectable seasons with the Mets until retiring after the 1986 campaign.

Frank Duffy went on to a decent career with the Indians. But he never was much of a threat at the plate.

Meanwhile, Vernon William Geishert disappeared from MLB.