more umpire memorials

like all mlb franchises, mlb umpires have a history of honoring the loss of members of their fraternity through the use of armbands or patches.  in 2017, there were five umpires remembered through patches worn on the sleeves of the active umpires - four were worn on the left sleeve, with a fifth added at the end of the regular season to the right sleeve.

there was an 'rg' patch for russell goetz, an 'mj' patch for mark johnson, an 'sp' patch for steve palermo, and an 'kk' patch for ken kaiser.  each square patch was worn to form a larger square, as can be seen on jose altuve's 2018 topps big league card (below the white postseason patch)

the first card that i picked up for this memorial was this 2017 topps now albert almora card

but i think i'll put that one in my lurkers collection, thanks to the presence of austin barnes.

the fifth umpire to be memorialized was negro league ump bob motley, who passed away on september 14, 2017.  unfortunately, i haven't seen a card showing his patch, although this photo from getty images does

the 'bm' patch is above the umpire's numbers.

in the 2018 season, the umpires wore three similar patches for former colleagues who've passed away in 2018

those patches are 'dr' for dutch rennert, 'dh' for doug harvey, and 'be' for bob engel.  i'll add a card to my collection if i can find one, and i'll post it here as well.

[edit - topps issued a card of umpires in 2019 that shows the patches]

same goes for 2019, which has the umpires wearing a 'jm' patch for jim mckean who passed away in january.