Baseball cards always have a story to tell.
The 1968 Topps set features two cards that have one story. Tim Cullen and Ron Hansen are shown as teammates with the Washington Senators. The infielders never played together.
Trades are a part of baseball, but Cullen and Hansen are the only two major league players to ever be swapped for each other twice in the same year.
On Feb. 6, the duo was a part of the six-player deal between the Chicago White Sox and the Senators. Cullen went to the White Sox and Hansen became a member of the Senators.
On Aug. 2, they were exchanged for each other again. Cullen finished the year with the Senators, while Hansen returned to the White Sox.
Cullen, who was selected to the Topps All-Rookie Team in 1967, played seven seasons in the majors. In addition to the Senators and White Sox, Cullen ended his career as a member of the 1972 World Champion Oakland A’s.
Like Cullen, Hansen played for the White Sox and Senators in his 15 seasons along with the Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals from 1958-1972.
In 1960, Hansen made the American League All-Star Team for the Orioles and was named the AL Rookie of the Year.
On a side note about trades and Hansen, he was also part of a deal that included a pair of Hall of Fame performers. In 1963, Hansen and Hoyt Wilhelm were among the players traded by the Orioles to the White Sox for Luis Aparicio in a six-man exchange.
Aparicio was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1984, while Wilhelm was elected to the shrine a year later.