What a card: This is Darryl Motley's first solo Topps card, despite having solo cards in Donruss and Fleer sets way back in 1982 (Motley was relegated to a three-player "future stars" card with Atlee Hammaker and Mike Jones in '82 Topps).
My observation on the front: Ghostly Expo in the background! The Royals are facing Montreal in an exhibition game.
More opinion from me: Motley holds a special place in my baseball heart for kicking off the rout of the Cardinals in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series.
Something you might know: Motley hit a two-run home run in the second-inning of Game 7 of the '85 World Series to give the Royals a 2-0 lead over starting pitcher John Tudor and the Cardinals. He also caught the final out of the game, clinching the Series for the Royals.
Something you might not know: Motley famously hit a long drive foul just before he hit his two-run homer. After the foul, Motley disgustedly slammed his bat on the turf, cracking the bat. Accounts say he used a different bat to hit the home run. And while that's true, Motley almost continued using the cracked bat. He liked the way the bat felt. But as he was settling back into the box, he heard teammate Hal McRae in his head saying, "never hit with a cracked bat." Motley called time and asked the bat boy to get a new bat.
My observation on the back: Motley's 1984 season was by far his best year. He was out of the majors by 1988 (but continued to play baseball until he was 42).
The blog wants to speak now: The TV category is updated.
I remember seeing Motley play in the minors 1983, which was strange because he was part of the Tiger's AAA team in Evansville not Royal's Omaha team. I couldn't figure that out.
ReplyDeleteJust after the home run, following Motley's last-second change of lumber:
ReplyDeleteAl Michaels: "Motley FOUND the right bat!"
Tim McCarver: "Maybe that's his 'fair' bat, the other one was his 'foul' bat."
An exchange that rings in my memory to this day. Little did my 11-year-old Royals-fanatic self suspect that with that swing, they'd just won their first World Series.