A manager got ejected during a rain “delay.” … A hitter, catcher and umpire all “challenged” the same pitch. (Or did they?) … Two batting champs went 0-for-6 for the same team, in the same game. … And the Red Sox seemed determined to fill up about 17 Weird and Wild columns every time they took the field.So here comes our latest, greatest recap of Weirdness and Wildness, starting with a screening of the …Deadline Poets SocietyYou might think the trade deadline doesn’t fit the usual Weird and Wild motif. If you do, you’re just not paying enough attention.The Angels … traded for two prospects named (what else) Angel. That would be Angel Arredondo and Angel Rivero. And here you thought Mike Trout was Mr. Angel.The Padres … already employed one of the two big leaguers in the modern era named France (Ty). They then gobbled up the other (J.P.) after the Astros jettisoned him. Vive la France!The Phillies … already had one multi-time batting champ in their lineup (Trea Turner). They then traded for another (Luis Arraez).That puts them in the esteemed company as only two other teams in the free-agent era (1976-present) have made a trade like that in midseason: The 1986 Reds had Dave Parker and traded for their next player-manager, Pete Rose. … And the 1979 Pirates also had Parker on the premises, then traded for Bill Madlock.The Dodgers … already had one two-time Cy Young Award winner on the payroll (Blake Snell). It’s possible you heard that they just traded for another (Tarik Skubal). They, too, are in rare territory, and it would be rarer if it wasn’t for … um, themselves.Only two previous teams in the free-agent era had ever dealt for a multi-time Cy Young winner in midseason when they already had one in stock.One was the 2023 Rangers. They had Jacob deGrom drawing a paycheck, then traded for Max Scherzer. … But speaking of Scherzer, now all these worlds are about to collide.In 2021, these same Dodgers were the pioneers of this load-up-on-Cys strategy. They were already the happy home of Clayton Kershaw, but they decided that it might be tough to eke by with just one multi-time Cy Young winner. So they traded for … everyone’s favorite hired gun, Scherzer. And that’s it for this list, except for one little …Asterisk alert! The 1986 White Sox had Tom Seaver on their roster, then added Steve Carlton to their collection of Cy Youngs. But the Phillies had just released Carlton, so no trades were necessary. Is that the same thing as Skubal/Snell, deGrom/Scherzer or Scherzer/Kershaw? Sorry. That’s a definite no!The Rays … always seem to enjoy confusing the outside world with the challenge of trying to identify their mysterious players. So one more time at this deadline, they set out to do that yet again.They already had a Taylor Walls on the roster and a Tyler Wall running their clubhouse operations. So (of course) they then made a strategic trade with the Orioles for reliever Tyler Wells. But that left one momentous question: How did they let Taylor Ward get away? (Hat tip: the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin.)The “Red” Sox … have officially become one of the most colorful teams in sports. They already had Sonny “Gray” on the premises, then traded for Eli “White.” But they forgot to call up pitching prospect Dylan “Brown” for their series against the “Blue” Jays. And that’s just plain color-blind.The Astros … must have seen Daulton Varsho hanging out in their ballpark when the Blue Jays were in town on deadline day — so they traded for him. Varsho then walked across the field to join his new team, and got $1,750 in moving expenses to hike approximately 200 yards. (The collective bargaining agreement says: We don’t care where you were when you got dealt. Pay up!)By my calculations, that works out to about $15,000 per mile. Which is great expense money if you can get it. (All right, all right. I’ll concede that in real life, he does have to move his stuff from Toronto to Houston, which he probably won’t do by asking a couple of buddies to help him pack up his place and cram everything into the back seat of their 2011 Buick.)Oh, and one more thing … The voice of Sunday Night Baseball on NBC, Jason Benetti, had another important question: Who’s paying for Varsho’s hotel room?Good question. Varsho did travel to Houston with the Blue Jays, who booked his hotel. And we’re pretty sure he didn’t change rooms after switching teams. So who’s on the hook for those last two nights? Hmmm.I asked a longtime traveling secretary that question. He guessed the Jays would probably suck that one up, since the whole stay is direct-billed. But it was also possible they’d bill the Astros for those extra nights, he said, even though “I wouldn’t have.”So does the mystery of that hotel tab hover over the aftermath of this trading deadline just as heavily as Freddy Peralta’s ERA? Maybe not at MLB Trade Rumors — but it does in the Weird and Wild column!Necessity is the mother of ejectionSince you’re probably reading this column on your phone, while navigating your way through cyberspace and scrolling your Instagram feed, this might not be the perfect time to complain about technology.But do you really think that would stop us?So what are we grumbling about today? We miss ejections. That’s all.Baseball was so much fun when Lou Piniella was punting bases into the outfield and Earl Weaver was stomping around, screaming at umpires with his cap flipped backwards. Then technology — and those darned robot umps — had to come along and ruin everything.According to our friends at closecallsports.com, ejections are down, from 122 (through Aug. 11 of last year) to 91 (through the same date this year). But mostly, it’s ball/strike ejections that have been devoured by those Automated Ball-Strike system gizmos.BALL/STRIKE EJECTIONS*2025 — 77