the twins' calvin griffith memorial patch

calvin r. griffith, the lifelong baseball man who inherited the washington senators from his uncle clark in 1955, passed away in october of 1999.  for the 2000 season, the minnesota twins (the team formerly known as the washington senators) wore his initials on their left jerseys in griffith's memory.  you can see the patch on this 2001 topps jacque jones card

as well as his 2000 upper deck mvp card

doug mientkiewicz (possibly the twins' next manager) is wearing the patch as he tries to break up an adam kennedy double play turn on kennedy's 2001 fleer ultra card

and joe may sports the patch on his 2002 topps heritage card

there's the patch again on torii hunter's 2003 upper deck big league breakdown card

but it's hunter's 2002 fleer platinum card that represents this memorial in the binder

griffith moved the senators to the twin cities in time for the 1961 season, and he remained the team's owner until 1984 when he sold the franchise to carl pohlad.  griffith's tenure saw many great players come through the twins' system, and the team won the 1965 american league pennant to go along with a couple of other division championships, but his legacy was tarnished by racist comments made near the end of the 1978 season.  as a result of those comments, rod carew sought and received a trade, and the twins continued to languish in the american league west for the remainder of griffith's ownership tenure.