an initials memorial for the royals' owner

ewing marion kauffman was the founding owner of the kansas city royals.  he made his fortune by building his company, marion laboratories, from a one-man operation (he started by making calcium supplements in his basement) to a near billion dollar operation when it was purchased in 1989 by merrell dow pharmaceuticals.  along the way, he brought baseball back to kansas city in 1969, and funded the construction of a baseball-only stadium in 1973, something that wasn't being done at the time.

after he passed away from bone cancer on august 1, 1993, the royals added his initials to a team logo patch for the remainder of the season.  the memorial is visible on bob hamelin's 1994 bowman card 

and also on tom gordon's 1994 topps card

brian mcrae's 1994 topps card gives a good look at it, too

here's the back of kevin appier's 1994 upper deck card showing the patch as well.

jose lind's 1994 upper deck card does not feature the memorial, but you can see the logo patch that the royals wore prior to adding kauffman's initials

the real reason i scanned lind's card, however, is for the back.  still no memorial patch, but that there's a knife!

but i digress.  the card that represents this particular memorial patch in my collection is mike mcfarlane's 1994 bowman card

the royals also honored kauffman by renaming royals stadium 'ewing m. kauffman stadium' shortly before he died.