a black armband for umpire tom gorman

it is true that joel skinner is sporting a black armband (for roger maris) on his 1987 fleer card

however, it is the armband on the left sleeve of the umpire behind skinner that will be the focus of this post.  the maris memorial will be covered in a future post.

tom gorman was a national league umpire from 1951 to 1976, but began his baseball career as a pitcher with the new york giants in 1939.  he passed away in august of 1986, and all umpires wore a black armband in his honor for the remainder of the season.  here's an associated press report regarding the armband.  gorman's son brian followed in his father's footsteps as a big league umpire, and the pair provided some umpiring bookends in the history of shea stadium - the elder gorman was the home plate umpire for the first game played at shea, and his son, brian, was the first base ump in the final game played there.