the brooks robinson memorial patch showed up on cardboard

the orioles only wore a patch in honor of the late brooks robinson for the last series of the 2023 season and during the 2023 postseason, and so i wasn't sure if any photos from those seven games would show up on cardboard. spoiler alert - they did.

the 86 year old robinson passed away on september 26, 2023, and the next night for their final game of a series with the nationals, the orioles wore their black jerseys and had an orange number 5 on their sleeves in tribute. this memorial is visible on adley rutschman's jersey in the getty images photo below

starting on the 28th of september, the black circular patch with an orange number 5 was affixed to the jersey sleeves, and i have rutschman's 2024 bowman card in my memorials collection representing it.

the patch is also visible on gunnar henderson's 2024 topps series 2 1989 35th anniversary insert

and on heston kjerstad's 2024 topps series 2 base card

i considered using henderson's card since he played a fair amount of third base in 2023 and was playing third during the game in which the photo used on the card was taken, but i settled on the rutschman card because of the orange jersey and the prominent oriole logo - both of which remind me of robinson. 

i am still hopeful that the tribute the o's wore on september 27 will show up at some point (that rutschman photo shared above would look great on a stadium club card) but for now i am glad that i have a cardboard record of the shortlived memorial for one of the greatest third basemen of all time.

[edit - the initial "5" patch worn by the orioles made an appearance on gunnar henderson's 2024 topps pristine oh snap! insert

i would still love to see that stadium club card, though!]