1985 Donruss, Darryl Motley

#461 Darryl Motley

Here is another signature from the '85 Royals team. Darryl was the first guy in the line signing autographs. The guy in front of me had a blue Sharpie in his hand and Darryl took it from him and signed his card and this card in blue. That is why this one is in blue instead of black.

Darryl played parts of five seasons with the Royals. He was only a .243 career hitter, but he did have 44 home runs with 32 of them in a two year span. In 1985, he hit just .222, but he will forever be remembered by Royals fans. In game seven of the Series, Darryl hit a two run home run in the second inning to get the scoring started on an eventual 11-0 romp. Darryl then caught the final out of the game.

I was only six years old when the Royals won the Series. Looking back at that team now, you can tell that the team won games with their pitching. Out of the eleven players that played in at least 100 games, six of them hit under .250. George Brett was the only player on the team to hit over .281. As a team, the Royals hit .252 which ranked them 13th in the 14 team league. The only offensive stats that they ranked in the top half of the league were doubles, triples, stolen bases, and strikeouts. But, if you look at the pitching, the only stat where they finished in the bottom half of the league is losses. I guess that just shows that good pitching will take you a long way.