boston strong - the armband and memorial patch for the victims of the boston marathon bombing

with the 2014 boston marathon being run today, let's recognize some cards showing the patch and armband that the red sox and other teams wore to honor the victims of the bombing that occurred near the finish line of last year's event.

in the red sox' first game back at fenway after the bombing, the team wore their home whites with 'boston' on the front rather than 'red sox'.  they also had a 'b strong' patch on their chests.  jonny gomes' 2014 topps card features a photo from that april 20, 2013 game.

as they had done the previous year after johnny pesky passed away, the red sox wore a black armband instead of the patch on the road.  dustin pedroia's 2013 topps update card shows the armband on his right sleeve

as does david ortiz's card from the same set

i'm not a pedroia fan, so the ortiz card is in my memorials binder.  after that first home game, the red sox moved the patch to their left sleeves as see on drake britton's 2013 topps update target red parallel card

although the card that is in my memorials binder for this placement of the patch is a card that features a photo from the final game of the 2013 season for the red sox.  from 2014 topps heritage, here is the world series game 6 card

it should be noted, and is on the hall of fame's website, that on april 16, 2013 (the day after the bombing), the red sox were on the road in cleveland and the players wore a makeshift black armband on their left sleeves

except for felix doubront, who wore one on his right sleeve

as did the indians players.

in the april 20th game at fenway, the red sox faced the royals, who also wore the 'b strong' patch on their jerseys

later in the season, when the red sox travelled to san francisco, the giants also wore the patch.

three spectators were killed by the explosions, and 264 were injured.  still, i am guessing that there will be a large turnout for today's race.  i've run a marathon before, but had never really given the boston marathon a thought.  that might have changed last year - we'll see...