But that changed when the Miami Dolphins traded a reserve quarterback, Cade McNown, to the 49ers, whose general manager, Terry Donahue, had coached McNown at U.C.L.A. Garcia became the odd man out, and it was back to the A.F.L. "I would have said that before I got the shot with the 49ers, I was pretty content with things, being the best Arena quarterback I could be," he said.
But after the Mariners stole Moyer from the Boston Red Sox in 1996 -- trading the reserve outfielder Darren Bragg for him -- Piniella found him to be everything he was looking for.
The Seattle Mariners were about to trade the reserve third baseman Jeff Cirillo to the Mets for Cedeño yesterday, but Cirillo invoked a limited no-trade clause in his contract, saying he would rather be a reserve with Seattle than take his chances with the Mets.
But, to do even better, Enron tapped certain trading reserves it held for no business purpose other than to reach the goal of beating the estimates.
But experts say that a miserable passage by sea or via the overland route probably represents only the low-end of this profitable trade, reserved for poorer farmers who can not raise enough money for the air route.
"If you're using trading reserves as a mechanism for understating your positions in good times -- and therefore not reporting profits -- and later reporting the old profits in times that aren't as good, that would clearly be an abuse of the accounting rules," said Lynn Turner, a professor at Colorado State University and the former chief accountant for the S.E.C.
Also, China and India may try to lock up supplies by using their dollar balance of trade reserves to buy materials producers, as China tried recently to do with Unocal.
When the trade deadline passed without his being traded, the Nets' reserve center-forward breathed a sigh of relief.
Carol Blazejowski, the Liberty's president and general manager since the league's inaugural season in 1997, drafted the 6-foot-4 center Kia Vaughn from Rutgers and traded for the reserve guard Sidney Spencer from the Sparks.
On the other hand, Memphis traded two key reserves on Tuesday to the Cleveland Cavaliers to get below the luxury tax threshold.
