During the
1994 baseball strike, which began on August 12, Winfield was traded to the
Cleveland Indians at the trade waiver deadline on August 31 for a
player to be named later. The 1994 season had been halted two weeks earlier (it was eventually canceled a month later on September 14), so Winfield did not get to play for the Indians that year and no player was ever named in exchange. To settle the trade, Cleveland and Minnesota executives went to dinner, with the Indians picking up the tab. This makes Winfield the only player in major league history to be "traded" for a dinner (though official sources list the transaction as Winfield having been sold by the
Minnesota Twins to the
Cleveland Indians).
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