With the passing of time and the trade deadline, it’s hard not to rehash past trades-even the ones that hurt the most. Cub fans of a certain age dwell on the Brock-Broglio trade. Cardinals fans can’t help but remind us every chance they get.

For several reasons, one of the trades in 1998 continues to rub me the wrong way-even though the Cubs made the playoffs. Sometimes teams trade away garbage for another team’s garbage-for the sake of a new environment. On July 29th, the Cubs swapped pitchers with the White Sox. The Cubs got hot garbage from the Sox and the Sox got a piece of their WS championship rotation. Hardly seems a fair trade, does it?

At the time, Jim Riggleman was pushing his rotation and burning through his stressed bullpen. Jon Garland was merely a prospect, one that wasn’t going to contribute to the 1998 team. Whereas Matt Karchner was a veteran reliever-one the Cubs used.

What was shocking at the time was how ineffective (Christian term for crappy) Firebug was. He had a 5.15 ERA and 1.42 WHIP in 32 games for the Sox. To dispel the myth that a change of scenery would solve all ills-his 5.14 ERA and 1.57 WHIP suggests that he stunk on toast. What I remember most of his Cub tenure was his ability to allow runs when they needed him to shut the opponent down. He poured gasoline on burning fires, ergo my nickname the arsonist or firebug.

Seven years later (there’s that number 7 again), Garland would contribute to the White Sox winning the World Series-a first for the city.