los angeles dodger commemorative patches through the years

i've been meaning to do this for quite some time, however it was a review of brian's want list at highly subjective and completely arbitrary that proved to be the push i needed to get it done. you see, brian collects cards showing commemorative - not memorial - patches.

the dodgers have worn a few commemorative patches recently, but not nearly as many as some teams for whom there seems to be something worth celebrating pretty much every year.  i'm limiting these posts to the los angeles dodger team, which means there won't be any discussion of the new york world's fair patch worn by the brooklyn dodgers in 1939.

well, aside from that 1961 fleer card, there won't be any discussion.  this list also does not include single game patches, such as the jackie robinson day patch that has been worn on april 15 in some recent seasons.

the task is fairly easy, because the dodgers didn't wear any patches, especially team specific patches for quite some time after moving to the west coast.  here's a year by year rundown.

1958 - none

1959 - none

1960 - none

1961 - none

1962 - none

1963 - none

1964 - none

1965 - none

1966 - none

1967 - none

1968 - none

1969 - major league baseball 100th anniversary (1971 dell's today team stamp maury wills)

1970 - none

1971 - none

1972 - none

1973 - none

1974 - none

1975 - none

1976 - national league centennial (1977 topps manny mota)

1977 - none

1978 - none

1979 - none

1980 - dodger stadium all-star game patch (1982 topps reggie smith)

1981 - city of los angeles bicentennial (1982 fleer bob welch)

1982 - none

1983 - los angeles dodgers 25th anniversary (1984 fleer derrel thomas)

1984 - dodger stadium olympic venue (1985 donruss orel hershiser)

1985 - none

1986 - none

1987 - dodger stadium 25th anniversary (1988 score steve sax)

1988 - none (vero beach 40th anniversary patch during spring training - 1988 donruss baseball's best alfredo griffin)

1989 - none

1990 - dodger national league franchise 100th anniversary (1991 topps debut '90 luis lopez)

1991 - none

1992 - dodger stadium 30th anniversary (1993 donruss triple play brett butler)

1993 - none (don drysdale/roy campanella and tim crews memorial patches)

1994 - major league baseball 125th anniversary patch (1995 fleer henry rodriguez)

1995 - none

1996 - dodger stadium 35th season (1997 upper deck tommy lasorda)

1997 - jackie robinson 50th anniversary patch (1998 topps finest brett butler)

1998 - los angeles dodgers 40th anniversary (1999 fleer brilliants eric karros)

1999 - dodger heroes (1999 keebler dodgers tripp cromer)

2000 - none

2001 - none

2002 - dodger stadium 40th anniversary (2003 topps total david ross)

2003 - none

2004 - none

2005 - none

2006 - none

2007 - none

2008 - los angeles dodgers 50th anniversary (2009 upper deck matt kemp)

2009 - none

2010 - 1955 world championship 55th anniversary (2010 topps update reed johnson)

2011 - none (duke snider memorial patch)

2012 - dodger stadium 50th anniversary (2013 topps josh beckett)

2013 - none

2014 - none

2015 - none

there were several missed opportunities that could have been celebrated - inaugural season on the west coast (1958), defending world champions (1960), opening of dodger stadium (1962), defending world champions (1964), defending world champions (1966), defending world champions (1982), defending world champions (1989), etc. as you can see, there were lots of chances to have worn defending world champions patches in the past, and i'm hoping next year they'll be in a position to wear one (or not) again.

who's carrying jackie robinson's torch? besides everyone, that is...

this week marks the 68th anniversary of jackie robinson's debut in the major leagues.  however, this post focuses more on the end of his playing days, as i thought i'd take a look at how his career torch was passed.

in his final regular season at bat (on september 30, 1956), jackie robinson grounded out against the pirates' bob friend.  here's jackie's 1956 topps card - the last from his playing days.

jackie did play in the world series in '56, but i am keeping this to regular season games.  for the record, jackie made the final out of the '56 series, striking out against the yankees' johnny kucks.

bob friend, who appeared with sandy koufax on a 1964 topps league leaders card,

retired deron johnson of the reds on september 24, 1966 while he was pitching for the mets.  johnson was the last batter friend faced in the majors.

deron johnson, seen here on a 1974 topps card as an oakland a,

struck out in his final big league appearance to end the game on may 28, 1976 as a member of the red sox against the orioles' grant jackson

on september 8, 1982, grant jackson had a one-game return stint for the pirates after pitching for the royals for the majority of the season.  here's his 1982 topps traded card

he entered in relief with the mets having loaded the bases in the 9th inning with one out, and promptly served up a grand slam to catcher ron hodges.  jackson retired the next two batters to end the inning, the last of which was ron gardenhire.  that was the last time jackson appeared in the big leagues.

ron gardenhire, still with the mets,

struck out in the 9th against jeff reardon to end his major league playing career on october 6, 1985. i like gardy's 1985 donruss card because of dodger stadium in the background.

jeff reardon finished his career in 1994 as a yankee (see this 1994 upper deck collector's choice gold parallel as proof)

allowing a game-tying single to tim salmon with his final big league pitch on may 4 of that year.

tim salmon (shown on a 2003 upper deck mvp card)

popped out against oakland's huston street in his last career at bat on october 1, 2006.  salmon was in the on-deck circle when the game ended.

huston street is still going strong, pitching for the angels following a midseason trade with the padres last year.  here's his 2014 topps update card

there are other, more important ways, in which jackie robinson's legacy lives on, but this sort of playing legacy has always intrigued me.

the steve garvey binder moves into 1985

sweet sheet 16 of the garvey binders is chock full of brown and gold.  take a look.

for the record, those cards are:

1. 1984 topps tiffany
2. 1985 armstrong ceramics
3. 1985 donruss
4. 1985 drake's
5. 1985 fleer
6. 1985 fleer (nl all-stars superstar special)
7. 1985 fleer (nl pennant clinchers superstar special)
8. 1985 fleer limited edition
9. 1985 leaf

here are the backs

the armstrong ceramic card is pretty weighty. it really is ceramic.  not much to say about the other cards except that i was really disappointed in the lack of attention paid to garvey's 1984 nlcs heroics by the major card companies as well as his return to the starting lineup for the national league in the all-star game. kudos to fleer for acknowledging both of those accomplishments.

here's sheet 17:

1. 1982-89 louisville slugger
2. 1985 mother's cookies padres
3. 1985 o-pee-chee
4. 1985 o-pee-chee stickers (nlcs - batting)
5. 1985 o-pee-chee stickers (nlcs - posed)
6. 1985 o-pee-chee stickers
7. 1985 pacific cramer spokane indians greats
8. 1985 topps (record breaker)
9. 1985 topps

i put the louisville slugger card here in 1985 because why not.  and, after lamenting the lack of attention paid to the 1984 nlcs, there's a sticker of the garv hitting his walk-off home run against lee smith.

the lone dodger (sort of) card here is the seventh one - a 1985 pacific cramer spokane indians greats card.  that set is chock full of great dodgers from the 1970's who spent time at the team's triple-a affiliate.  garvey spent just one season in spokane (1970) and hit .319 with 15 homers and 87 rbi.

here are the backs:

i am pretty sure that 1985 continues for at least one more sheet...

one does not simply post random cards on friday

unless one lacks inspiration for a proper post, and there are still a bunch of cards sitting idly in the scanned folder.

such is life.

2002 topps tribute zach wheat

wheat actually had 476 career doubles, which was still about 300 shy of the all-time leader (tris speaker) when he retired.  speaker is still on top of the list, with wheat way down at 81st all-time (and about to be passed by torii hunter) now.

2004 topps heritage don newcombe flashback

newk won exactly 20 games in 1955 (as he had in 1951), but was 27-7 in 1956 to win the cy young and mvp awards.  he lost game 1 of the '55 world series, so i guess that's why the flashback card references the 1955 regular season.  always good to see don newcombe cards in newer releases!

1985 donruss ken landreaux

i liked '85 donruss at the time. definitely more than i liked '85 fleer (and i am a fan of the 1970 topps gray border set).  landreaux here is swinging away in dodger stadium, while delino deshields is in vero beach on his 1996 upper deck card

1996 upper deck got a little too fancy for me.  there are some nice cards in the set, but all the gold foil didn't do much for me so i bought very little of this back then.

2002 topps chrome davey lopes refractor

that's a shiny card of the former dodger second baseman who was fired by the brew crew 15 games into the 2002 season.

2002 topps chrome traded brian jordan

i don't know if the chrome traded veteran cards are short printed, but i was pretty ticked that topps did that with the regular traded set that year.

2010 upper deck jonathan broxton biography insert

broxton was indeed 6-0 after june 5, 2009 with 13 saves to his credit to boot.  after the game on august 18, 2009, broxton was 7-0 with 26 saves.  he took the loss the next day.

2010 topps cards your mom threw out 1953 topps johnny podres

this is the 'original back' version

at some point between 1953 and 1978, people stopped using the phrase "pulls a rock". i had not heard that until reading the back of this card.

2005 topps carl erskine 'dem bums' insert

oisk is trying to run away from this post as fast as he can. i don't blame him.

a mcmemorial mcpatch for ray a kroc

raymond albert kroc was, among other things in his lifetime, a milkshake mixer salesman when in 1954 he met the mcdonald's brothers and recognized the potential for expansion that their hamburger business offered.  kroc eventually bought the brothers out of the business and took the restaurant worldwide.  in 1974, he used some of the money he had made from his mcdonald's empire and bought the san diego padres.  after he died of heart disease in january of 1984, the team added his initials to their left sleeves in tribute.

here's a 1985 topps steve garvey card that shows the memorial worn in 1984, the first year the padres appeared in the postseason

and it shows up on garvey's 1985 topps record breaker, too.

it's there on eric show's 1985 topps card, too

and carmelo anthony's 1985 donruss card offers a really good look at it

but i've got this 1984 star steve garvey card in the memorial binder as the 1984 example of the memorial

thanks to the fact that it's garvey and he's wearing a mcdonald's wristband.

the padres wore the memorial again in 1985, perhaps inspired by the chicago bears who had begun wearing george halas' initial on their uniforms following his death in october of 1983 and continued to do so the following year.  in fact, the 'gsh' on the bears jerseys has never been removed since it was first added over 30 years ago.  anyway, here are some examples of the memorial from the 1985 season.

1986 leaf dave dravecky

and 1986 topps mario ramirez

the ramirez card is in the binder, too.

the pads wore the memorial in 1986 as well, and there are some 1987 cards that show it fairly well.

1987 fleer garvey

1987 topps tony gwynn

with dodger catcher alex trevino lurking

1987 topps carmelo martinez

1987 donruss garry templeton

1987 donruss randy asadoor

and 1987 donruss ed wojna

those last two cards feature a nice dodger stadium, so they are both in that binder, but i have the wojna card in the memorial binder, too.

although the padres did not wear the memorial beyond the 1986 season, it has shown up on a few cards since then, like this 1992 fleer ultra tony gwynn commemorative series card

and this 2013 topps archives gwynn card

and, when the padres wear their 1984 throwbacks, the memorial makes a return as well, as evidenced by yorvit toerralba's 2010 topps update card

kroc, who once apologized to fans over the stadium loudspeaker for the padres' poor play, was a benefactor to many charities, including those involved in the research and treatment of various diseases, including alcoholism.  he also oversaw the development of the ronald mcdonald house charities and was a member of the inaugural class in the san diego padres hall of fame.