MANHATTAN BEACH, CA -- Ned Colletti might be the only person in professional sports history to have traded for Manny Ramirez and scouted the Columbus Blue Jackets' power play.
Managerial cross-pollination between professional leagues is rare. While general managers and coaches trade notes and use each other for advice, the actual hiring of an executive from one sport to work in another just doesn't happen. Which is why the San Jose Sharks hiring Colletti, a longtime Major League Baseball executive who served as GM of the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 to 2014, made ripples through the industry.