wearing the memorials on their sleeves

last night i finally was able to post the list of known memorial armbands and patches in major league history.  my goal is to collect a card showing each and every one, so it doubles as a want list.  i will track the ones i own, but if you  have a better example than the one i have, let's make a trade.

here are a couple examples from 19991 upper deck.

late in the 1989 season, the cardinals' owner, august a busch, grandson of busch brewery founder adolphus busch, passed away at the age of 90.  he oversaw the cardinals from 1953 until his death, presiding over six pennant winners and three world championship teams.  for the 1990 season, the cardinals wore an 'aab' patch on the left sleeves of their regular jerseys and a black armband on the left sleeves of their batting practice jerseys.  southpaws frank dipino and ken dayley model each case very well.

about two years after busch died, the pirates lost a long time member of their family.  their 64 year old equipment manager, john 'hoolie' hallahan passed away in september of 1991, and the pirates recognized the man who began his career with the team in 1941 as a visiting team batboy with a memorial patch as seen on orlando merced's 1992 topps card.

i believe that the patches were only worn for the last few weeks of the season, so it's fortunate to have such a nice display as seen on that card.

in april of 1992, the angels lost coach deron johnson to cancer, and wore a 'dj' patch on their right sleeve as seen on scott lewis' 1993 topps card

the mets also wore a memorial patch in 1992, as seen on dick schofield's 1993 topps card.

actually, you can see it better on howard johnson's 1992 o-pee-chee premier card, so that's the one that goes in the binder.

it's an 's' for william shea, the co-founder (with branch rickey) of the continental league, whose creation led to the expansion of the major leagues and the return of national league baseball to new york - which was shea's goal all along.  he was the namesake of the mets' stadium, and, in a way, of chipper jones' kid.

i'll show one more of these, because  i think you get the point by now.  this is a 2007 upper deck card of chris britton.

britton is wearing a '44' patch for former oriole great elrod hendricks.  hendricks, who passed away in december of 2005, had three tours of duty with the orioles as a player, and was the team's bullpen coach for 28 years after his retirement. the orioles wore his number during the 2006 season, and i am on the lookout for the orange version of the patch, which was worn on the orioles' black jerseys, and i will soon be looking for a new oriole card showing one of this years' players wearing the '4' patch for earl weaver.

check out the list and see if you can help a blogger out!

similar but terrific tom terrific final tributes

here are the three major release tom seaver cards from 1987 - topps

donruss

and fleer

all feature pretty similar photos of tom terrific, who threw the final pitch of his career for the red sox in 1986.  only one of these 'final tribute' cards dares to show all of seaver's career stats, and that is topps

donruss gives us lots of good info like his ranking on some career stat leader boards, but confuses us by noting that he pitched his no-hitter for the reds/cards in 1978.  but they only give us 5 years of stats.

fleer, for some reason, ignores his first two big league seasons and jumps right into the miracle mets year of 1969 - the first season that seaver won the cy young award

seaver currently sits 6th on the all-time strikeout list and 18th on the wins list for a career.  andy pettitte is closest to him on both lists, but won't catch him.

seaver hurt his knee in or shortly after his final start of the season in game 148, and did not pitch for the red sox in the 1986 postseason.  after the mets rotation suffered a rash of injuries in the early goings of the 1987 season, seaver decided to attempt a comeback with the team.  three weeks or so into the comeback effort, seaver didn't think he was pitching effectively, and retired for good.  i'm glad, because it's unlikely topps or the other manufacturers would have made a card for seaver in 1988.  well, maybe score might have.

for whom the armband tolls - a new (and perhaps morbid) type collection

according to the national baseball hall of fame, the practice of wearing a black armband in honor of a deceased teammate dates back to 1876 when the saint louis brown stockings mourned tom miller who passed away early in the season.  since then, the practice has expanded to managers, owners, announcers, spouses, equipment managers, and club executives, along with tragic events such as the newtown and virginia tech shootings and the boston marathon bombings.  and that's not even close to a complete list.

the most famous franchise in honoring their fallen is the new york yankees.  they have worn black armbands (or numbered/initial patches or both) many times.  here is a 1982 donruss card featuring tommy john and ron guidry, where the black armband is visible on the left arm of louisiana lightinin'.

the yankees wore the black armband in 1981 in honor of elston howard, who passed away in december of 1980 from heart failure.  howard succeeded yogi berra behind the plate for the yankees, and was their catcher in 9 world series (they won 4 of them) during the 1950's and 60's.  he was the al mvp in 1963, and served as a coach for the bronx bombers until the time of his death.

the dodgers have also recognized many of their players who have passed away.  most recently they wore a '4' patch for duke snider during the 2011 season.  here's a 2011 topps update clayton kershaw card that shows the patch

he's wearing the patch on his chest because it was displaced by the all-star game patch during the midsummer classic.

in 1993, the dodgers recognized three different players.  they started the season with a '52' patch in honor of tim crews, the former dodger pitcher who died during spring training with the indians.  brett butler's 1994 upper deck collector's choice card shows that patch nicely, front

 and back

then, during the season, both roy campanella and don drysdale passed away about a week apart.  as a result, the dodgers wore a '39 roy/53 don' patch on their right sleeves.  you can see that patch and the crews patch on raul mondesi's 1994 upper deck collector's choice card

in july of 1957, dodger coach don mcmahon died after suffering a heart attack while throwing batting practice.  the dodgers wore a 'mac' patch for the remainder of the season, as seen on fernando valenzuela's 1988 fleer baseball's exciting stars card

the card is complete with a nice dodger stadium background.

one of the things i like best about baseball is the celebration of its history.  seeing the pennants flying and retired numbers hanging at stadiums across the country is one of my favorite things to check out when i visit various stadiums.  i also appreciate it when teams recognize players from their past, including posthumously via the patch or armband.  if you'll recall, i count this card among my favorite non-dodger cards.

so, i have decided to collect cards that show these memorials.  i will collect just one of each instance (other than dodgers, of course), and i am working on a list over at my want list site that will outline the occasions of which i still need examples of in cardboard form, as well as the cards i have that feature the patches.  if you have one that shows a memorial that i don't have, or if you think yours is better than the card that i do have, let's trade.  you will be rewarded.

because, dangit, charlie moore wants us to remember the brewers' equipment manager robert sullivan

who passed away prior to the 1986 season.

so, there's another angle for my collection, and another recurring topic for the blog.  long live the memorials!

double play cards above and beyond

here are the rest of the double play cards that i received from bo of baseball cards come to life a while back.  it is worth noting that bo contacted me and said that he had a bunch of dp cards that would be new to my collection.  at that time, i did not have my list of owned double play cards posted.  that meant that bo went through all my double play posts from the past (almost) 5 years, and figured out what i had and didn't have.  that is dedication to our hobby and to the trade.  i appreciate it very much.

here we go.  

1992 donruss triple play pat kelly (and ron tingley) awesome action!

even donnie baseball gets a mention.  i noted in the post earlier today that pat kelly must have a high ratio of double play cards.  this is further proof.

from the same set, here's cal ripken

standing over kevin maas (i think), who was apparently able to break up the double play since cal jr is left holding the ball.

here's an odd one - a 1988 topps big cory snyder

better remembered as an outfielder, the corndog did play some shortstop during his first few years in cleveland.  he turned 20 dp's as a rookie there in 1986, but this is more likely one of the 6 he turned in 1987.

here's a 1992 topps stadium club shawon dunston

landscape double play turns are nice.

here are a couple of turns from 1993 fleer ultra - freddie benavides

and luis rivera

plus a craig biggio turn from 1993 topps stadium club

1994 fleer jeff kent

and two each from 1995 donruss - gary disarcina

and jeff reboulet -

and 1995 leaf - craig biggio

and jose vizcaino

thanks bo!

bo knows that double play cards are this collector's choice

here's a trade and double play card post for you to read while you're waiting to be seated for brunch with your mom.  happy mother's day.

bo from baseball cards come to life sent me a healthy package of double play cards a while back.  there were quite a few from 1995 upper deck collector's choice.  let's have a look.

pat kelly

kelly's dp card to card ratio may be as high as kurt stillwell's.

royce clayton

and dp combo partner robby thompson

looks like thompson got the worse of the two with david hollins' helmet in his thigh.

jose lind

stands his ground

jeff frye

elevates

and noberto martin

is flyin'.

here's luis sojo with a force out toss

but the good stuff is on the back

how he managed to turn two with his back to first base is a mystery to all.

the back is nice on kurt abbott's card, too

thanks to the dodger stadium locale, but the front is what gets it into the double play binder

1995 udcc wasn't the only card release that bo included in his package.  not by a long shot.  here's a 1995 score select carlos baerga card with a nice play at second on the front

and a dp turn on the back

this 1995 score roberto alomar

is a nice 'tattooine' shot - nothing but dirt to be seen

here's a 2000 fleer focus marlon anderson

(he who hit the fourth home run in the dodgers' 4+1 game against the padres in 2006)

and a 2001 fleer focus ray durham card

last, but not least, for this post is a 2001 fleer premium warren morris card

and that's not the half of what bo sent.  thanks bo!

foul bunt goes out of bounds, but is more than fair

here are some very nice dodger cards that i received from william of foul bunt a while back in trade.  first up is the 2013 topps matt kemp 'out of bounds' short print.

i am happy to have this card, even though i was underwhelmed by these short prints if for no other reason that some regular base cards had similar photos.  i wonder what sort of sp's topps will have in series 2.  

also in the package was this low-numbered 2013 topps black parallel andre ethier card

it's pretty sharp, as is this clayton kershaw gold parallel

new to me is this 2010 topps pro debut dee gordon card

in fact, i had not seen any cards from this set before.  not sure why the team in chattanooga is the lookouts instead of the choo-choos.

here's a 1993 topps pedro martinez card

it is a card that deserves to be shown on the blog, and i have been remiss in scanning early-to-mid '90s cards.

so, here is a 1992 topps eric karros card that william also sent

and here is the back - scanned and shown for two reasons

first - there's dodger stadium!  second - look at what a rude awakening fabio had when he was first called up.  the pcl was not always a reasonable way to evaluate big league talent.  luckily for karros, he was able to mash a bit in the big leagues.

here's a 1992 donruss juan samuel card

on which former dodger sid bream seems to have broken up a double play.

william was also kind enough to include non-dodger cards of players from the team of my youth.  here are charlie hough's 1991 donruss

and 1988 score cards

i wonder if anyone ever called hough 'the chuckler'.

thanks for the trade william! sorry it took so long for me to post my end.