While I was on hold with the St. Louis Cardinals ticket office, I was reminded that Tony Womack is beloved in STL. I had forgotten that he even played for the team let alone, the ’04 version that lost the World Series to the Red Sox even though I know they had a bobble for him last season. Forget the fact he played parts of two seasons with the Cubs. I associate him with the Pirates and Diamondbacks.

When guys play for multiple teams like the aforementioned Jackson and Dotel, it’s easy to pick a team from a hat. Between these two pitchers, they played for 129 years and more teams in the league than not. This struck me when I read of the passing of Ron Taylor. Whether because of his ordinary name or that he last pitched 53 years ago, his might not be a household, baseball name. However, he contributed to different WS champions, the 1964 Cardinals and the ’69 Mets. Maybe more interestingly, he became a doctor after his playing career and served the Toronto Blue Jays in that capacity for years.

Hundreds of players have won World Series with multiple teams over the years. Some have contributed to teams in different decades and in different roles. I have yet to read anything about Taylor from the STL perspective and don’t know what their relationship with him was. Obviously, HOF players labor for years without even making a postseason appearance (see Ernie Banks) while playing for a single team.

Other hired guns win titles with multiple teams like Jack Morris. Luck and timing have something to do with it, and I wonder which fan base has adopted Morris as their own. I suspect fans of the teams that lost to Morris might associate his villainy with the victor.

Of course, some fans will always associate particular players as the ones that got away. Everyone thinks bad trades only happen to them and their team(s). The Mets are still smarting over the Nolan Ryan trade, but that might pale in comparison to the PCA debacle. The Cubs are ruing the day they traded Lou Brock and the White Sox, Chris Sale.

Since the Red Sox traded Rafael Devers to San Francisco, people are assuming other teams aren’t going to wait for the July trade deadline to make some big deals. I’ve no doubt some will be epic busts and that fans will remember specific players being a part of one of these moves.