18 August 2014

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.

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