the cal ripken sr memorial patch

i know i quickly addressed the cal ripken sr memorial patch back in my early days of memorial collecting, but i didn't really give it its due.

here are a few cards that feature the '7' patch that the orioles wore in honor of ripken following his passing in march of 1999.

2000 topps stadium club chrome mike bordick

and 2000 upper deck jerry hairston jr

are both turning two, which is nice.

the patch is seen on charles johnson's 2000 topps card

and a bunch of albert belle cards - 2000 fleer ultra

2000 pacific paramount

2000 upper deck hitter's club

and 2000 upper deck

the card that best represents the memorial, however, is the 2000 upper deck cal ripken jr checklist

ripken sr spent 36 seasons in the orioles' organization as a player, coach, and manager.  he managed his sons at the major league level, and played a part in virtually every oriole player's career as a minor league manager, big league coach, and/or major league manager from 1961 until his death.  after ripken sr was fired as the team's manager early in the 1988 season, his son billy switched his uniform number to his father's number 7.  when ripken sr returned to the team's coaching staff in 1989, he took the number back, and it is worth noting that no oriole has worn the number 7 since he passed away.

pick your poison

big or little? which do you choose?  if you are the dodgers in 1944, you choose both.  paul and lloyd waner, aka big poison and little poison, were brothers, teammates, hall of famers, and dodgers.  paul was even a dodger double dipper.

[this is the fiftysixth installment in the double dippers posts.  here are the previous posts - brett butler, omar daal, eric young, nick willhite, chris gwynn, mickey hatcher, dave anderson, don zimmer, rafael landestoy, dave hansen, jose vizcaino, hideo nomo, greg maddux, mike maddux, jon garland, chan ho park, vicente romo, gene mauch, denny lewallyn, von joshua, joe moeller, dioner navarro, rudy seanez, bart shirley, randy wolf, ismael valdes, bobby castillo, mike devereaux, pete richert, jay johnstone, jesse orosco, lee lacy, giovanni carrara, jeff weaver, ted sizemore,  orel hershiser, tom goodwin, joe ferguson, eddie murray, matt luke, ken mcmullen, tim wallach, jerry grote, don sutton, ralph branca, todd hundley, elmer dessens, guillermo mota, joe beckwith, jamie hoffmann, babe herman, joe medwick, juan castro, ron perranoski, and clyde king.]

here's a card of big poison in a dodger uniform.  it comes from the 2000 upper deck hitter's club set

this particular card, and others in the set like it, celebrate the 3000 hit milestone.  however, waner's 3000th hit came in between his dodger stints as a boston brave.  waner initially joined the dodgers as a free agent in 1941, following 15 years with the pirates.  i pulled a card of his from 2013 panini cooperstown which uses a photo that may or may not be from his pittsburgh days

did they have flip up shades in 1940 (or before)?

oddly enough, i also pulled a parallel of paul's brother lloyd, also shown as a pirate from a pack of cooperstown cards

the dodgers released paul waner after he hit just .171 in 11 games in 1941.  he went to boston where he played through the 1942 season (and got hit number 3000) and was then released.  the dodgers picked him up once again and he wore dodger blue in 1943 and part of 1944 before they released him for a second time, but not before he got to be teammates with his brother again.

the only other card i have of him (although others exist) as a dodger is the 1990 target dodger card

unfortunately, his brother's card in the set uses a pirate photo.

i suppose that makes sense, since lloyd waner's dodger career lasted all of 15 games in 1944.  many of those games also featured his brother paul, but it doesn't seem that they ever started together in the outfield as dodgers.  after being released by brooklyn, lloyd did some double dipping of his own, too, as he returned to the pirates for a final hurrah.  paul, on the other hand, finished his career with the yankees - the team that had beat the waner brothers and the pirates in the 1927 world series.

the waners are not the only brothers to be dodgers at the same time (ramon and pedro martinez come to mind) but they are the only hall of fame brothers to be dodgers at the same time.  of course, they are also the only brothers enshrined in cooperstown, so that helps.