The trade deadline in Major League Baseball comes at 5 p.m. CDT tomorrow afternoon. Teams will be on the lookout for an extra player or two to help them get to the postseason. One of the best late-season acquisitions I remember occurred on August 29, 1985, when the St. Louis Cardinals sent minor league outfielder Mark Jackson to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for César Cedeño. The deal gave Cedeño the opportunity to be the impact player everyone always thought he would be.

In 28 games for the Redbirds, Cedeño hit .434 with six home runs and 19 runs batted in. Those six homers included a home run on the first pitch he saw in a Cardinals’ uniform, a pinch-hit grand slam, and a solo shot in the top of the 10th inning to secure a 1-0 victory against the New York Mets. Simply put, without Cedeño, the Cardinals would not have won the National League Eastern Division title.

Cedeño made his major-league debut with the Houston Astros in 1970 at the age of 19. He had a rare combination of power and speed; his throwing arm drew comparisons to Roberto Clemente. Cedeño looked ready to deliver on all the hype by hitting .310 with seven home runs and 17 stolen bases in 90 games that year.

Cedeño’s second season was good by most standards, but a disappointment to those expecting him to be the next Willie Mays. He hit a decent .264 with 10 homers and drove in an impressive 81 runs. Cedeño had a breakout season in 1972, hitting .320 with 22 home runs, 82 RBIs, and 55 stolen bases. It looked as if he were on his way to the Hall of Fame at the ripe old age of 21. Cedeño followed with another .320 year in 1973 with 26 homers and 56 stolen bases.

During the off-season Cedeño ran into trouble back in his hometown of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Cedeño’s girlfriend accidentally killed herself with his .38-caliber revolver. Authorities initially charged Cedeño with voluntary manslaughter but, while being held in jail, tests on his girlfriend’s hand indicated that she had fired the gun. Prosecutors reduced the charges against Cedeño to involuntary manslaughter; he paid a fine, and they turned him loose.

After that incident Cedeño’s career was fairly unremarkable. While having respectable seasons by most standards, he showed only occasional flashes of the greatness the baseball experts predicted. Opposing crowds taunted Cedeño throughout the remainder of his career; he went into the stands after an abusive fan in Atlanta in 1981.

After 12 years in Houston, the Astros dealt Cedeño to Cincinnati for Ray Knight before the 1982 season.

Cedeño was unable to parlay his September success into a career resurgence. The Cardinals rewarded him by not picking up his contract at the end of the season. The Toronto Blue Jays signed Cedeño as a free agent in 1986 but released him during Spring Training. The Los Angeles Dodgers picked him up, and he was hitting just .231 when they released him in June.

Cedeño finished the 1986 season with the Louisville Redbirds, but hit just .169 in 35 games. He never made it back to the big leagues, and his career was over at the age of 35.

For most of his career, César Cedeño never lived up to the unfair comparisons to Clemente and Mays that greeted him in 1970, but then again, who could have? But for one month at the twilight of his playing days, he exceeded those expectations and brought home a pennant for the St. Louis Cardinals.

(All statistics are from Baseball Reference. Game details are from Retrosheet.)