an armband for gil hodges

gil hodges passed away of a heart attack while golfing towards the end of spring training, 1972.  his wonderful 1972 o-pee-chee card gives us the hard facts about the manager of the mets.

to honor hodges, the mets retired his number and wore black armbands during the 1972 season.  i don't believe that the dodgers wore any memorial for their former first baseman, and number 14 is still available to be worn by any tom, dick, or mark ellis, as the case may be.  anyway, here is a 1973 o-pee-chee card of jerry grote with the armband present

and 1973 topps cards of willie mays

and ted martinez

but it's ken boswell who gets to represent this memorial in my binder

thanks to the faraway look in his eyes and the prime location of the armband in the photo.