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.

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.

speaking of debuts...

with all of the attention that steven strasburg, mike stanton, carlos santana and others received this week regarding their debuts, i thought i would take a look at some dodger debuts courtesy of the 1991 topps debut '90 set.

we'll start with dave hansen, pinch hitter extraordinaire:

september 16, 1990 against the reds.  pinch hit for rick dempsey and went 0 for 1 with a strikeout against rob dibble.

yawn.  how about darren holmes?

september 1, 1990 against the expos.  relieved don aase and pitched 2 innings, giving up 1 hit, two walks with two strikeouts.  received no decision.  first batter faced was oil can boyd (he grounded out).  first strikeout victim was dave martinez.  not too bad.

luis lopez?

september 14, 1990 against the reds.  pinch hit for mike sharperson and went 0 for 1 against tim birtsas.  his fly ball was caught by glenn braggs who then threw home to get fernando valenzuela for a 9-2 double play.  alomst an rbi!

how about jim neidlinger?

august 1, 1990 against the giants.  started the game and went 6 innings, giving up 7 hits and one run (earned) with a walk and three strikeouts and was not involved in the decision.  first batter faced was brett butler (he grounded out) and first strikeout victim was jose uribe.  that's pretty good for a debut.

how did jose offerman fare?

august 19, 1990 against the expos.  started the game batting leadoff and playing shortstop and went 3 for 5 (3 for 4 against dennis martinez, 0 for 1 against steve frey).  hit a homerun in his first at bat, leading off the bottom of the first.  singled in the third and fifth innings, before grounding out in his final two at bats.  he also stole a base, turned a double play and didn't make an error.  well done, jose!

jim poole, olympian:

june 15, 1990 against the padres.  relieved jay howell in the 11th inning and struck out the first and only batter he faced - tony gwynn.  now that is making a debut!

brian traxler?

april 24, 1990 against the cardinals.  pinch hit for eddie murray and went 0 for 1 with a strikeout against bob tewksbury.  pretty memorable for traxler, i am sure, as he hit for a hall of famer.

dave walsh?

august 13, 1990 against the braves.  relieved fernando valenzuela and pitched 2 innings, giving up 2 runs (both earned).  gave up 3 hits, 2 walks and struck out 2 with no decision.  first batter faced was jeff blauser (he flew out) and first strikeout victim was john smoltz.  meh.

terry wells?

july 3, 1990 against the cubs.  started the game, going 6 innings and gave up 6 runs (4 earned) and 8 hits.  walked 1 and struck out 6 and got no decision.  first batter faced was doug dascenzo (he popped out) and first strikeout victim was the second batter he faced, ryne sandberg.  not a bad start to the game, but not a great overall debut.

carlos hernandez was also in this set, although i can't find his card to scan.  we'll assess his debut anyway: 

april 20, 1990 against the astros.  started the game at catcher and went 1 for 3 against jim deshaies.  flew out in his first at bat, doubled and scored his second time up, and grounded out his last time up.

i give the nod to offerman, although i contend that homering in his first at bat was the worst thing that could have happened as he seemed to fancy himself a power hitter after that and flew out all the time, rather than hit ground balls and use his speed.  regardless, no strasburg-esque debuts in this lot!