01 May 2015

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.

3 comments:

Brian said...

That Dodger Heroes patch is interesting - did they have multiple patches during the year featuring different players?

gcrl said...

brian - yes. i meant to link to an older post:

http://garveyceyrusselllopes.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-like-way-you-think-travis-barbary-or.html

lots of cool patches that year!

Adam Kaningher said...

I found some cards with patches not too long ago for Brian, and it was the most fun trip through my duplicates box in a long time