a cleveland memorial patch for the trainer

jimmy warfield was a trainer in the indians' organization from 1969 until his passing in 2002.  he began his career with the team's aa affiliate and then joined the major league team as trainer in 1971.  warfield held the role of head trainer until 1997, when he stepped back to assistant trainer at the age of 55.  on july 15, 2002, warfield suffered a brain hemorrhage and passed away the following day.

in his memory, the indians wore a 'jw' patch on their right sleeves for the remainder of the season.  here's a 2003 upper deck 40 man card of milton bradley with the patch visible on his jersey.

i also have this 2003 upper deck mvp card of brandon phillips in my collection.

it shows the warfield patch as well, but this particular card sits in my double play binder.  it's worth noting that rickey henderson (is that really rickey?) is sporting the ted williams armband (and number) on his sleeve.  teddy ballgame will get a separate memorial post, of course.

i was a bit surprised that the dodgers didn't do something similar for bill buhler when he passed away early in the 2003 season.  he did have a patch in the dodgers' 1999 heroes set, which i assume was worn by the training staff, but his career and impact on the dodgers' organization was worthy of a tribute, just as warfield's was.