a memorial patch for chub feeney

charles s. "chub" feeney was a lifelong baseball man who got his start as a batboy for the new york giants thanks to the fact that his grandfather was the principal owner of the team.  in 1936, his uncle took over, and when feeney returned from service during world war ii, he made chub a club executive.  following chub's death from a heart attack in january of 1994, the giants wore a patch with his initials on their left sleeve during the strike shortened season.

you can see the patch on bill swift's 1995 upper deck collector's choice special edition card

it's there on john patterson's 1995 donruss card

as well as the front

and back

of patterson's 1995 upper deck collector's choice card

dave burba's 1995 topps card gives a good view of the patch

as does this really shiny (only when scanned) 1995 leaf cornerstones card featuring matt williams and jr phillips

that card is nice but it's this 1995 sportflix uc3 matt williams card that is in the memorials binder

in between his return from military service and his death, feeney oversaw the giants' move to san francisco and very nearly became the commissioner of baseball in 1969.  after losing the vote to bowie kuhn, feeney was named national league president in 1970 and was the main force in convincing the owners of his league to resist the designated hitter rule.  feeney gave way to the new national league president, a. bartlett giamatti, in 1986 and retired.  joan kroc later convinced feeney to un-retire, and he agreed to join the padres as their general manager during the 1987 season.  he lasted in that role through the 1988 campaign, or at least through most of it, as he resigned during the season's final days after giving the finger to some fans who wanted a change made in the gm position.

a lotta piazza

as mentioned in the previous post, i snagged over 100 mike piazza inserts from what was essentially a dime box at the local card show last weekend.  this one might be my favorite.  from 1994 pacific, it's a silver prism circular insert/parallel

there's a regular silver prism version with a different pattern, and there's a gold prism version with a different photo.  see them here.  i like the circles.

1995 donruss long ball leaders

i can't be sure, but it seems as though piazza hit a long home run against mark gardner of the marlins.  subtlety is not donruss's strong suit.  actually, this particular home run was also a grand slam - the first of piazza's career.

1994 leaf limited

not an insert, but still shiny like one.

1994 topps stadium club super teams insert

a nice dodger stadium play at the plate aftermath card.  luis gonzalez looks dazed and confused.

1995 pinnacle zenith all-star salute insert

he looks angry.  pitchers didn't like him when he was angry.  he would hit mash, or smash if i were to continue the hulk reference.

1995 upper deck sp championship series

not an insert, but not the most common of cards either.

1995 sportflix uc3 in motion insert

yes, piazza is in there somewhere

1996 donruss freeze frame insert

too bad it's brian mcrae and not glenallen hill who delivered a big hit on piazza about 20 years ago.  yikes, i'm old.

1996 fleer emotion xl

not an insert, but i am appreciating the framed card all the same.

1996 upper deck retail predictor insert

was piazza a rbi leader of any month in 1996?  i am not sure.  but i also snagged this 1996 upper deck predictor exchange card

so he must have done something right.

1997 fleer ultra fame game insert

and 1997 fleer ultra season crowns insert

the first one is typical ultra, but that second card could pass for a pacific insert.

1997 topps finest

not an insert, but who could tell with finest?

i'll finish up the piazzafest with a couple of pacific dandies.  this is a 1997 pacific prism base card

if you can believe it, and this is a 1998 pacific crown collection gold crown die cut insert

that's a whole lotta piazza.  i noticed that there were a couple of dupes when i was sorting them afterwards, so let me know if anyone is interested (daniel).