a black armband for roger maris

roger maris, one of the yankees' famed 'm&m' boys, died in houston on december 14, 1985 at the age of 51 due to cancer.  the yankees added a black armband to their uniforms for the 1986 season in his memory.  thanks to the sheer number of cards produced in 1987, there are lots of examples.  this first one is a 1987 topps glossy send-in card of rickey henderson.

the armband is much more noticeable on that card than it is on rickey's 1987 donruss card

but it's still there.  here's ron guidry's 1987 donruss card 

and don mattingly's 1987 fleer card

both good examples.  topps had some in the flagship, too, like bobby meacham's 1987 topps card

the problem with this particular memorial is that the yankees wore black armbands in 1985 for clubhouse man pete sheehy, so i can't really be sure if these photos are from 1985 or 1986.  i'll assume they are from 1986, but i know for sure that these next two - 1987 topps doug drabek

and 1987 topps mike fischlin

feature photos from 1986 because neither player was with the yankees in 1985.  still, i'd rather use a different card in the collection.  this 1987 topps yankees leader card featuring rickey and mattingly was a front runner

as was this 1986 donruss highlights card of mattingly

in the end, i think it's a higher likelihood that the 1987 topps card features a photo from 1986.  besides, it features the yankee pinstripes.

maris famously hit 61 home runs in 1961, eclipsing babe ruth's record for most in a single season.  he also led the league in runs scored and rbi that year, won his second straight mvp award, and helped the yankees win the world series, too.  he finished his career with the cardinals, including two more trips to the world series in 1967 and 1968.  in addition to the armband memorial following maris' death, the yankees had retired maris' number 9 during the 1984 season with maris in attendance.

maris was born in minnesota, but the family moved to fargo when he was young.  the fargo community still embraces maris as a hero, with many events and other references to him throughout the city.  i can say that i have been to the roger maris museum in the west acres shopping mall.  they will be the first to point out that maris is still the single season american league home run champ, if not the 'legitimate' champ.

thoughts of fernando and newk

i was thinking about fernando valenzuela and don newcombe last fall as jose fernandez made his late season run.  if you have forgotten, the marlins rookie was 8-2 with a 1.43 era over the last 3 months of the season, and had 103 strikeouts in 88 innings during that time.  i was thinking about fernando because back in 1981, he became the first pitcher to win both the rookie of the year award and the cy young award in the same season, and i thought that fernandez had a shot at duplicating the feat.  however, because clayton kershaw won the cy young over fernandez, valenzuela remains the only pitcher to win both awards in the same season.  crisis averted.  now, here are a couple of el toro's cards that i've had scanned for a while.

1987 topps glossy send in

1988 topps

 and 1995 upper deck electric diamond

and 2004 fleer greats of the game

back in dodger blue.  it should be noted that fernando finished 5th in the league mvp voting in 1981 - the highest he would get in his career.

i mentioned up top that i was also thinking of don newcombe.  like fernando, newcombe won the rookie of the year award.  newk won his in 1949, but he didn't win the cy young award that year, mostly because the award didn't exist.  here are some cards of newks' that i've been saving for a rainy day.

2004 upper deck sweet spot classics

2007 upper deck sweet spot classics

and 2005 topps pristine (uncirculated)

now seems like a good time to show a couple other cards from that set - davey lopes

and don zimmer.

but i digress.

newcombe may well have won the cy young had it existed in 1949, but he did win it once it came into being.  newcombe was the very first person to win the award when it was initiated in 1956.  and that was when there was just one award for all of major league baseball.  he also won the mvp award that same season, making him the first player in history to win the rookie of the year, cy young, and mvp awards.  here's a 1961 topps card celebrating his mvp win that newk signed for me through the mail four years ago.

dwight gooden came as close to the trifecta as fernando had when, in 1985, the 1984 rookie of the year won the cy young award and finished 5th in the mvp voting.  ultimately, it was 2006 al rookie of the year justin verlander who, in 2011, became the second pitcher to achieve the feat.  still, newcombe is the only national league pitcher to do it, which brings us back to fernandez.  fernandez certainly looks like he has the stuff to pull it off, and he is one-third of the way there.  of course, he pitches for the marlins so he will have to be spectacular if he is to win an mvp award any time soon.