Bob Cerv’s desire to play for the Yankees was roused by a trip to New York with his father, who drove a refrigerated food truck from Nebraska. He was only 11 or 12, but seeing Lou Gehrig hit home runs at Yankee Stadium made him want to play there as well.

Cerv grew into a burly slugger who fulfilled his dream. He made it to the Yankees. Not once. Not twice. But three times. First the Yankees signed him. Then they traded for him. Then they made a deal to get him back again.

Cerv never played regularly for the Yankees, who ruled baseball at the time and were stocked with talent. They won five World Series from 1949 to 1953 and were transitioning from the Joe DiMaggio era to Mickey Mantle’s. Cerv found full-time work — and stardom — only after the Yankees sold him to the Kansas City Athletics, perennially one of baseball’s worst teams.

“Of course, it was wonderful to be with a winner and share in the World Series melon every year,” he said in as-told-to article in The Saturday Evening Post. “But I wasn’t getting anywhere.” He said he was excited to be traded to Kansas City.