Friday, October 9, 2015

Dave Marshall (#464)

Since I previously posted the Topps All-Star Rookie outfielder Bobby Bonds, today I’m wrapping up this subset with outfielder Dave Marshall. 

Marshall had a 6-year major-league career (7 years, if you count one pinch-running appearance in 1967), mostly for the Giants and Mets. Dave was signed by the Los Angeles Angels in 1963, and played 3 seasons in their farm system before he was traded to the Giants in April 1966 for minor-league shortstop Hector Torres. Marshall worked his way up the Giants’ minor-league ladder for 2 seasons, then made the Giants’ squad at the start of the 1968 season.


Marshall was the Giants’ 6th outfielder in 1968 (having the misfortune of joining the team the same year as rookie Bobby Bonds). The following season, he was promoted to 4th outfielder. (Actually, the Giants had lost Jesus Alou and Ollie Brown in the expansion draft.)

In December 1969 Dave was traded to the Mets (with pitcher Ray Sadecki) for outfielder Jim Gosger and infielder Bob Heise. [WHAT were the Giants THINKING? Surely Sadecki alone was worth more than those 2 players.] Marshall was a bench player for the Mets for 3 seasons (1970-72), missing both the World Championship 1969 season and the NL Championship 1973 season. He never moved above #5 on the outfield depth chart, and was shipped out to the Padres after the ’72 season.

Dave split the 1973 season between the Padres and the minors, a place he hadn’t seen since 1967. In late September he was sold to the White Sox, but never played for them, and retired after the ’73 season.

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