revisiting the august a busch memorials

back in the very early stages of compiling cards for my memorials mini-collection, i showed these two cards as examples of the august a. busch jr memorials - initials on the home and away jerseys, and a black armband on the bp jerseys.

since then, i've come across better examples in my collection.  it's tough to top the 1991 upper deck ken dayley card for the armband, although i like this 1991 topps debut '90 card of ray lankford

and this 1991 bowman bryn smith is interesting as well

first of all, he's suttoning, but he's also wearing a lefty's mitt.  smith, of course, was a right-handed pitcher.

1991 upper deck also features good examples from bernard gilkey

and felix jose

but the card that kicks dayley out of the binder is this 1991 bowman ozzie smith card

as for the initials memorial, this 1991 fleer ozzie smith card gives us a better view than the dipino card up top did, as we see the 'jr' after the 'aab'.

that card also features a dodger stadium backdrop, so it's already in a different binder.

the memorial is visible, at least partially, on a bunch of other cards i've come across.  such as, 1991 donruss jose oquendo

1991 topps stadium club rex hudler

1991 international playing cards all-stars lee smith

1991 upper deck vince coleman

1991 upper deck jose deleon

and 1991 upper deck pedro guerrero

but those are mostly just partials.  fortunately, this 1991 o-pee-chee premier card of the former dodger displays the initials in their entirety.

plus, there's whitey herzog hanging out in the background.  petey goes into the binder.

as for the late august a. busch, he was the grandson of the founder of the busch brewery, and had presided over the cardinals since 1953 until his passing late in 1989.

an armband for tony c

former red sox outfielder tony conigliaro was a local boy made good.  he was born and raised in massachusetts, and in 1964, at the age of 19, he was playing for the red sox.  he set a teenager home run record that year with 24, and would reach 100 career home runs at a younger age than any other american league player in history.  the only person younger than tony c to have done so was mel ott.  he was also the youngest player (20 years old) to lead the league in home runs when he hit 32 to pace the al in 1965.

conigliaro suffered a horrific beaning in august of 1967 that damaged his left eye.  he missed not only the remainder of the season, but the entire 1968 season as well.  remarkably, he was able to return to the majors in 1969 and hit 20 home runs, earning comeback player of the year honors.  the following season, he hit a career high 36 homers, but was traded to the angels after the season ended.

his injury caught up to him in 1971, as he hit only .222 with a mere 4 home runs that year.  the angels held on to him though, hoping that he would return to form, but he never did appear in the majors for them after 1971.  after the halos finally released him in 1974, he returned to the red sox for one last try in 1975.  after hitting just .123 with 2 homers, the red sox released conigliaro in september.  in 1982, conigliaro suffered a heart attack and later a stroke, and spent the next 8 years in a persistent vegetative state until his death in february of 1990, 24 years ago today.  

thanks to the massive number of baseball cards produced in 1991, there are plenty examples of the black armband that the red sox wore in 1990 to honor conigliaro.  here's a 1991 donruss wade boggs all-star card

and boggs' 1991 upper deck card shows the armband on the front

and back

as does larry anderson's

this 1991 o-pee-chee premier roger clemens card was a front runner for the memorial binder

and this one that i received from tom at the angels, in order from the 1991 international playing card company all-stars set is nice, too

but then i remembered dwight evans' 1991 topps card.

talk about a no-doubter.

it is worth noting that conigliaro's 'most similar by ages' players listed on baseball reference include mickey mantle and frank robinson for his second and third seasons.  bryce harper is the most similar for his rookie season, but mantle was the comp before harper came along.  tony c was the real deal.

flush with dodgers

are jokers wild? if so, then tom from the angels, in order sent me a flush.  there's eric karros from the 1992 bicycle rookies playing card set

not sure if he's a smoker or a midnight toker, but he is a joker.  then there's eddie murray from the 1991 international playing card company all-stars set

pedro astacio from the 1992 rookies set

brett butler from the all-stars set

and another karros card from the rookies set

cue motorhead…i'll wait.

there were a couple other playing cards in the package - memorial types - that i will show in future posts.  there were also cards from another sort of game - 1991 classic.  here's a darryl strawberry card from the first series (i think) that features him with former teammate dwight gooden

if you want to see more of doc and darryl, check out the timeless teams post from yesterday.  if you want to trade with tom, check out the angels, in order.

thanks for the trade tom!