Dan Meyer

January 19th, 2010 @ 06:22pm

This card features the expression of a man playing for the Mariners in the early 1980’s, who wishes there’d never been an expansion draft.

Originally a Tiger since the 4th pick of the ‘72 Amateur draft, Dan was taken from Detroit by Seattle as the 9th pick in the expansion draft four years later. This makes him the 5th Mariner ever.

Sometimes I think about how cool it might’ve been if Meyer had become Seattle’s first star. I mean, look at the Mariners logo at the time… it’s a big ‘M’ with a star behind it, and Dan’s last name starts with ‘M’. I’m sure some smart marketer could’ve used that to promote the Mariners in the early days.

By the end of 1981 though, he’d only built up a .298 OBP and 89 OPS+ for his career. His only seasons hitting better than the average player were ‘77 & ‘79, but it still wasn’t much better than average.

In December ‘81, he was traded to Oakland but didn’t hit much better there than he did in Seattle over the years. 1982 was the last time Dan would play in more than 83 games in a season, as he played multiple positions and pinch hit for Billy Martin’s A’s in 120 games.

Dan got to witness some history though, as he was the first baseman for the Athletics in the game where Rickey Henderson broke the single season steals record in Milwaukee.

Oddly, Dan went hitless in that game. I say “oddly”, because he smacked the Brewers around quite well that season. In 7 games, he hit .400 and slugged .600.

The highlight of his season was probably not against the Harvey’s Wallbangers though. On April 13, he smacked 2 home runs against the Twins. That would be the final time he’d ever have a 2 HR game.

Which brings me to what’s so curious about Dan Meyer. He wasn’t a power hitter (tho he twice posted 20 HR seasons), posting a career .379 slugging percentage, but that completely changed when he’d face the Brewers, Red Sox, or Twins. 1/3 of his 89 career HR’s came against those 3 teams. Every one of his 2 HR games came against them too.