[LansdowneSt]

Life isn’t always a fastball down the middle. Sometimes it is unpredictable, with all the ups and downs and erratic sharp curves of a Wiffle Ball thrown into a still breeze. An original Seattle Mariner, Danny Meyer experienced the full gamut of life’s changes both on and off the field. Through it all, Meyer adjusted, even if it meant traveling a different road than the one he imagined.

Meyer credited his father with getting him interested in baseball and having a profound impact on his hitting. From an early age the senior Meyer would come home from work and take his son out to hit. He would throw Wiffle Balls to Meyer on the sun-soaked driveway swept by the warm Santa Ana winds. “When you can learn to hit a Wiffle Ball fluttering in the wind, you can hit anything,” The right-handed-throwing, left-handed-hitting Meyer was selected in the fourth round of the June 1972 amateur draft by the Detroit Tigers. He played a little more than two seasons in Detroit and as 1976 came to a close, the Tigers were confident that one of the expansion teams, the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays, would select 21-year-old right-handed pitcher Frank MacCormack, allowing the Tigers to protect Meyer after the first round. The draft did not play out that way. The Mariners selected Meyer with the ninth overall pick in the first round. (Seattle also grabbed MacCormack, with the 16th overall pick.)

Meyer was a fan favorite in the early years of the Mariners franchise. He was captain of the Pepsi Jr. Mariners Fan Club and was actively involved in United Way charities in the Greater Seattle area. Along the way, he acquired the nickname Disco Danny for his unique mannerisms during his routine to prepare to hit. The moniker was used in a 1980 promotional piece for the Mariners in which coaches, teammates, and fans mimicked Meyer’s neck-loosening movements and upper-body gyrations. After the season Meyer’s five-year tenure with the Mariners ended when he was traded to the Oakland Athletics for 21-year-old right-handed pitching prospect Rich Bordi. Years later he reflected on his years with the Mariners. Meyer described the first year as hopeful, but said malaise that would affect the franchise for years quickly set in. “It got to the point where you just knew you were going to end up in the cellar or close to it, because we hadn’t done anything to make ourselves better,” Meyer said. - SABR

There was no facegen for Meyer in the pack. Made this one. He kinda needs his hair to be complete but so do many facegens...