memorial patches for kevin hickey and moose

bill 'moose' skowron passed away in late april, 2012, and fellow white sox alum kevin hickey died a couple of weeks later.  the white sox honored both former players with diamond memorial patches on their 2012 jerseys.  the top one read 'hic man' for hickey, and the bottom patch had 'bms' for bill 'moose' skowron.

you can see both patches on the road grays thanks to francisco liriano's 2012 topps update card

as well as on the home pinstripes courtesy of adam dunn's 2013 topps

and 2013 topps opening day cards

and even on the throwbacks thanks to alex rios' 2013 topps archives card

but the card that gives us the best view of the patches is this 2012 topps heritage high numbers francisco liriano card. it's the one that goes in the memorials binder

one thing i like about this relatively new collection of mine is that i get to learn about players that i might not have known much about otherwise.  i did not know that kevin hickey's story rivals that of 'the rookie' jim morris or that philadelphia eagle player that disney made a movie about.

hickey was a steelworker who played softball and went to a tryout held by the white sox in the late 1970's.  he did well enough that he wound up getting to play in the minor leagues.  he eventually earned a call up and pitched in the majors for parts of six seasons - three with the white sox and three with the orioles.  even after his playing career was over, he remained close to the white sox, and was the team's bp pitcher from 2004 up until his death.

skowron i knew more about, largely because of his role in the dodgers' 1963 world series sweep of the yankees.  it was his lone season as a dodger, but he hit .385 in the fall classic with a home run to help defeat his former team, which he was not too thrilled about.  beginning the following year (after a short stint with the senators), skowron played for the white sox for a few seasons.  after retiring, he returned to chicago and served as an ambassador for the team as a member of their community relations department.  skowron appeared in 7 world series as a member of the yankees to go along with his one as a dodger, but the yankees did not wear armbands in 2012.

the twins clean house, i add more cards

i should take a lesson from the twins.  they reently traded away two of their more popular outfielders - denard span

and ben revere

while i took part in padrographs 2012 topps heritage high number 'break'.  not only did rod send me the twins' cards from that set (including the span up top), he also sent me a healthy stack of twins cards from other recent releases.  that 2012 topps ben revere is the first gold rush card i have added to my collection.

here's a regular 2012 topps card that i didn't have before

i have let my vladdy pc slide the last few years.  it's too bad that he didn't get to the majors last year - he's one home run shy of 450, and 9 hits behind steve garvey on the all-time list.  i should note that i also claimed the yankees from the heritage high numbers set for trade bait. as a result, i got the ichiro card.  he looked better in the mariners' colors, in my opinion.

here's a double play card that rod included - a 2010 upper deck matt tolbert card

obviously, it was included in the package because tolbert was a twinkie.  the cloud of dirt was at first unnoticed by me, but i think it verifies that this is a dp turn.  tolbert, by the way, spent 2012 in the cubs' organization.

with all these twins players on the move, it's comforting to know that good ol' tc bear will always be around

although i am of the opinion that tc should be a black bear, given the bear population that actually exists in minnesota.  

rod also included a singular padre card in the package.  it was a 1986 fleer mini steve garvey card

the photo for which was probably taken very close to the same time as his regular 1986 fleer card

the mini card is smaller than it appears to be here, but the text is also shrunken - more than an proportionate amount.  kind of like the twins' major league roster.

thanks rod!