1988 Topps, Jeff Montgomery

#447 Jeff Montgomery

Here is another card from Jeff Montgomery. Jeff is a frequent visitor to Royals Fanfest and this is the first one I have posted from this years Fanfest. I have plenty of Royals cards signed by him, so I had to add another Reds card of him. I have his '88 Score card signed and I posted that one about five years ago. I can't believe I have been doing this for that long.

I tried to acquire this card from the Topps Diamond Giveaway a few years back without any luck. I eventually broke down and picked one up off of COMC and I apparently picked out the one with the blemish to the left of Jeff's head.

Jeff saved 304 games in his career, including a league high and Royals single season record of 45 in 1993 (which was broken last season). All of those saves came with the Royals. Jeff's Reds career spanned a mere 19.1 innings where he went 2-2 with 6.52 ERA. He even made his lone start of his career with the Reds and pitched five innings against the Dodgers and gave up five runs on eight hits with three walks and four strikeouts. That day was the only time Jeff ever batted in a Major League game and he went 0-2 with a strikeout.

Jeff was traded to Kansas City after the season for Van Snider. Van saw action in nineteen games with the Reds and hit .200. I think that the Royals got the better end of that deal.

Jeff currently works for the Royals TV broadcasts, helping out with the pre- and post-game shows.