1987 Topps, Darryl Motley

#99 Darryl Motley

Here is the third and final Darryl Motley from Fanfest. I couldn't resist taking this card with me since it had the "NOW WITH BRAVES" caption on the front. This is my first signed "now with" card.

Darryl got traded to the Braves on the 23rd of September in 1986. The Royals only had 11 games left and for some reason, they fealt compelled to bring Steve Shields to town. That would seem like one of the most pointless trades ever (Shields pitched in three games for the Royals in '86), but they were able to flip Shields, Scott Bankhead, and Mike Kingery to the M's in the off-season for Danny Tartabull. So, I guess it worked out good for the Royals.

Darryl Motley, on the other hand, was hitting .203 in 217 at-bats when the Royals traded him. He got into five games as a Brave in '86 and went 2-10. The following year, he only got into six games in Atlanta while spending most of the time in AAA. After a couple more seasons of AAA ball, Darryl retired. Then, at the age of 39, he decided to make a comeback in the indy leagues. From 1999-2002, he got into roughly 130 games with four different independent teams.