dave cash, moneyball, and other zane-y tales from the ttm successes

i have been pretty quiet on the ttm front for the last year or so, sending out just a handful of requests.  usually, i am sending out 1978 topps cards when a 'new' signer becomes known to me.  that means that someone will post an address and a success on one of the free ttm sites for a player who hadn't been listed previously.  such was the case with dave cash a few months ago.

he signed and returned his card in about three weeks.  his former teammate, steve rogers, signed and returned his 1978 topps card

and 1984 fleer card

after about five months, while another expos pitcher, zane smith, signed his 1990 upper deck card

after about two months.  i really like the smith card with the colorful uniform and logo (the stylized 'm' shows up three times on the card) with beautiful dodger stadium (colorful in its own right) as the backdrop.  very nice.

as for cash and rogers, i think of both of those guys as expos; rogers obviously spent his whole career in montreal, and cash was in montreal when i first started following the game.  his best seasons were the three he spent in philadelphia immediately preceding his time with the expos, but i missed them. it wasn't until cash was out of the majors in the early 1980's that i realized he had replaced bill mazeroski at second base for the pirates and was a part of the 1971 world series champion pirates.

speaking of 1971, roger metzger signed and returned his rookie card from that year for me

along with his 1978 topps card

metgzer's '78 topps card always made me think of mork from ork whenever i saw it.  the show 'mork and mindy' started around the same time that this card was released, and metzger bore a resemblance to robin williams in the photo, i thought.  a couple years later, i looked at this card in a different light, as it shows the tips of all four of metzger's fingers on his right hand.  during the offseason following the 1979 campaign, metzger lost those fingertips in an accident involving a table saw.  he returned to the giants (who had purchased his contract during the 1978 season) but had just two hits and was released by the team in august of 1980.

other recent successes include the winner of game 7 of the 1979 world series

as well as the pitcher who took the loss in that game

grant jackson entered the game with two out in the bottom of the fifth inning and the pirates down 1-0.  he retired the first 8 batters he faced before walking two orioles in the bottom of the eighth and giving way to kent tekulve.  scott mcgregor, meanwhile, pitched well, allowing only willie stargell's sixth inning two-run home run over 8 innings of work.  i remember watching the game and cursing earl weaver for making countless trips to the mound in the 9th inning (he used five different pitchers that inning) and preventing me from seeing the 'eight is enough' episode wherein i believe nicholas set fire to the bradford residence.  still haven't seen that episode.

here's leroy stanton

stanton was the first right fielder in the history of the seattle mariners.  he also got the second hit in franchise history, and a few seconds after that, became the first mariner to be out trying to stretch a single into a double.  other mariner firsts for stanton - he handled the first ball put in play (a first inning double by don baylor of the angels - the previous three batters had walked or struck out), and recorded the first outfield putout on a second inning bobby grich flyball.  stanton actually recorded the first six outfield putouts in franchise history spanning the team's first two games.

these next two cards are a couple of ttm success stragglers - brett butler's 1983 donruss card

and, ten years later, his 1993 topps card

i missed posting them when i did my brett butler ttm-palooza post.  here's another double-b ttm success, courtesy of a's general manager billy beane

i went with the 2003 topps highlights card over beane's own topps archive card.  i figured it made more sense.

sincere thanks to all of these guys for taking the time to sign my cards!