Topps Big Cartoon Deep Dive: Bryn Smith

I'll take Gregory's suggestion and try a series based on Topps Big comics. I tried that many years ago and didn't stick with it for very long, but I'll give it a try here. I do have all three sets so it's easy enough to flip through them.

 These cartoons have a deservedly bad rap for whitewashing the nonwhite players but I'll look beyond that to find interesting tidbits in the cartoons. The cartoons themselves are OK, typical Topps stuff. But I like some of the personal factoids about the players. 

Today's selection is Bryn Smith, who on the front is delivering a pitch at Jack Murphy Stadium.

Most of the time there will be one or two interesting cartoons, but all three of Smith's are notable.

Smith was an excellent golfer in high school. The Olympic Stadium drive was done to win a pregame bet with announcers Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek before a nationally televised game..

Smith is no ordinary Rush fan. After the 1984 season he joined the group on tour for several days and worked as a roadie. He is good friends with singer Geddy Lee, and wore a Rush T-shirt under his baseball uniform for many years. Smith is one of several baseball and hockey players to be thanked in Rush album liner notes. 

Smith is hardly the most interesting person in his own family. His father, Tom P. Smith, was a photographer for Lockheed Martin, photographing key classified material during World War II, and filming some of their first rocket launches. His stepbrother, Tom O. Smith, served two terms in the Vermont House of Representatives in the early 1990s. And then there was his mother, Meg. Not short for Margaret or Meghan, but Omega. Meg worked in publicity at RKO Studios, where she became good friends with actor Cary Grant (dated, according to a 1980s SI article that may be exaggerating). It was through her friendship with Grant that she got a role as Ingrid Bergman's body double when the actress wasn't available to film some additional scenes for the movie Notorious. At RKO she met Tom Smith through their mutual friends, Rams QB Bob Waterfield and actress Jane Russell. The two married on a TV program called Wedding Bells in 1950, and moved to Marietta, GA in 1954 so Tom could start Lockheed Martin's film division.