For fans of rumors, today is like a national holiday. July 31 marks baseball's non-waiver trade deadline, which means speculation will whip through the airwaves like a hurricane until 1 p.m.

Last year on this date, 29 players changed uniforms. And that was considered a slow day. The trade deadline can be fun for fans and it's an all-you-can-eat buffet for the talk-show radio.

But there is also a human element to July 31: A trade can send a player's home life into utter disarray.

"It's pretty crazy, actually, especially for the first few days," said Giants reliever Vinnie Chulk, who got a call last July 21 - at 1 a.m. - and was told to pack his bags for a 10 a.m. flight.

Deadline trades are different from off-season moves, when players have time to prepare for a new life. In Chulk's case, he worked in Toronto one day and in San Francisco the next. "You don't get two weeks' notice in baseball. You get 15 minutes," said Ned Colletti, general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Colletti was speaking from his home in Los Angeles on Saturday as he was preparing to try to "stir up some action" on the trade market. Last year he was busy, landing pitcher Greg Maddux and infielder Julio Lugo just minutes before the final buzzer.

Colletti, the former assistant Giants G.M., has worked on hundreds of trades, but he said he has never lost sight of the personal side.


He knows that for each name listed on the transaction wire today, a wife somewhere will be scrambling to find a new pediatrician in a strange city.

"We live in the era of rapid information, with e-mail and voice mail, but you can't just e-mail a player from one city to the next. They have to pack up and move," Colletti said.

"Yes, many of these guys are financially secure, but they still have the same concerns for their families as everybody else: Where is the doctor's office? Where is the grocery store? How do you get to the ballpark?"

He could have added: And who are these guys? Bobo Newsom, a talented pitcher whose career ran from 1929 to '53, earned his nickname because he stopped bothering to learn the names of his new teammates. Newsom just called everyone "Bobo," according to the "The New Biographical History of Baseball."

The decision was understandable. Newsom changed teams a record 17 times, including eight times in the middle of the season. He never lasted with any organization more than two consecutive years.

Reggie Sanders is no Bobo. But for a while, he shared a similar career path. In 1998-2006, the outfielder changed teams seven times, including a stop with the '02 Giants.

The perk of so many job addresses?

"My wife and I have met some really good real-estate agents," Sanders said with a laugh.

Sanders, incidentally, is on the block again. Kansas City Royals General Manager Dayton Moore is listening to offers for Sanders, reliever Octavio Dotel, outfielder Emil Brown and others.

A deadline deal would be a first for Sanders.

"I think the beauty of all my changing is that I never did it during a season," he said. "I've always changed at the end of the season, and that was easier for me and my family. We had time to get situated."

Randy Messenger couldn't be so leisurely. The Florida Marlins reliever was at Miller Park in Milwaukee on May 31 when the bullpen phone rang. This wasn't a call for Messenger to start warming up; it was a call telling him to gather all his stuff and retreat to the dugout.

Minutes later, General Manager Larry Beinfest told him he was headed for San Francisco. Messenger was pleased, but he was also caught off guard. The pitcher had barely enough clothes in his suitcase to get him through the next few days.

"I had to send my car keys to someone with the Marlins. They drove to my house, packed up the rest of my stuff and shipped it out," Messenger said.

The same thing happened to Randy Winn when the Giants traded for him a day before the 2005 deadline.

"When you get traded, it can be fun and exciting. I was happy to be coming to San Francisco," the former Santa Clara University standout said. "But, on the other side, you only have a couple of hours to pack up before you go to a new league, with a new apartment and a new life. My wife stayed behind and pretty much handled everything."

In previous years, Winn got caught up when his name was mentioned in trade rumors. But that year - in '05 - he finally stopped paying attention. So, naturally, he was gone.

Colletti said that some clubs try to do their best to keep things under wraps, out of respect for the players. That got tricky in the 2000 off-season, when the Giants agreed to send third baseman Bill Mueller to the Chicago Cubs for reliever Tim Worrell.

The deal was completed on Friday, but Colletti and G.M. Brian Sabean then heard that Mueller had plans to attend the Cal-Stanford football game at Memorial Stadium.

"Brian and I looked at each other and had the same thought: We couldn't let Bill Mueller go to the Big Game as anything other than a Giant," Colletti recalled. "We called the Cubs back and asked them to hold off - and then we just hoped Mueller didn't have plans to go to the 49ers game on Sunday."

See, there is a personal side to baseball trades after all.

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