catching up on memorials

there were a number of memorials worn by a variety of teams in 2015 that i did not write about, even after finding cardboard representations to include in my memorials binder.  here are a few

sara l. buck was a minority owner of the philadelphia phillies who passed away in august of 2014 at the age of 83.  the phillies were already wearing a patch for another minority owner who had died in february of that year (claire betz), so they waited until 2015 to wear a patch for buck.  here's a 2015 topps update card of jeff francoeur showing the "slb" patch:

buck was part of the ownership group that bought the phillies in 1981.  the phillies previously wore a memorial patch for both her husband and her brother-in-law during the 2011 season.

the cardinals wore a memorial patch during the 2015 season for their teammate oscar taveras who died shortly after the 2014 season ended.  here's matt holliday's 2015 topps update card that shows the  "ot" patch:

taveras had a blood alcohol content much higher than the legal limit when he crashed his car into a tree in his native dominican republic, killing himself and his girlfriend. he had made his major league debut earlier that year, and was one of baseball's most highly touted prospects.  he was only 22 years old.

the former san francisco giants (and 49ers) and oakland a's broadcaster lon simmons died in april of 2015 at the age of 91.  the giants honored him with a "lon" patch on their left sleeves worn during the regular season.  here's ryan vogelsong's 2015 topps update card with the patch visible:

simmons broadcast giant games from 1958 through 1973.  he returned to the booth in 1976 and stayed for three years before joining the oakland a's broadcast team in 1981.  his tenure with the a's lasted through 1995, and so simmons was in the booth during the 1989 world series when the a's beat the giants.  he returned to the giants' booth in 1996 and retired following the 2002 season, although he returned to work a few games during the 2006 season.  simmons received the ford c. frick award from the hall of fame in 2004, and he was inducted into the bay area radio hall of fame two years later.

1953 american league mvp al rosen spent his entire 10-year career with the indians, and after he died in march of 2015, the club added a patch with his number 7 to their jerseys.  you can see the patch on francisco lindor's 2015 topps update rookie debut card:

rosen came within one hit of winning the triple crown in 1953 (he hit .336 to mickey vernon's .337), and led the league with 43 homers and 145 rbi.  he was a late season call-up for cleveland and had one at bat in the world series in 1948, but he still won a ring that year.  he was a big part of the team that won the pennant in 1954, but played for only two more seasons after that. rosen also served as the president of the yankees from 1978-1979, and as general manager of the astros from 1980-1985 and of the giants from 1986-1992. he was named the sporting news executive of the year in 1987 as he helped guide the giants to the nlcs for the first time since 1971.  two years later, under rosen's watch, the giants won the pennant for only the second time since moving to san francisco.  rosen was 91 years old when he died.

billy pierce died at the age of 88 on july 31, 2015, and the white sox soon thereafter added a patch to their uniforms featuring his number 19.  the patch was placed below the minnie minoso "9" patch (although mike olt's jersey had it above the minoso patch

at least once) already being worn to honor minoso, who had passed away in march.  tyler saladino's 2016 topps card shows both patches nicely:

pierce spent 13 years with the white sox (1949-1961), and led the league in each triple crown category once during his tenure with the club.  he was a member of the 1959 pennant winning team, having started 33 games during the regular season, but was used only as a reliever during the world series as chicago lost to the dodgers. pierce ranks highly on the white sox franchise leaderboard in many categories, and his 1,796 career strikeouts are most in team history.  his number 19 was retired by the club in 1987, and he is featured on the outfield mural (i hope it is still in place) at whatever the new comiskey ballpark is called these days.

milo hamilton was a broadcaster who worked for a number of teams, beginning with the st. louis browns in 1953. he also broadcast games for the st. louis cardinals, chicago cubs, chicago white sox, atlanta braves, pittsburgh pirates, chicago cubs (again), and finally, the houston astros.  while he may be best known for his call of hank aaron's 715th home run during his time as the braves' broadcaster, hamilton spent 26 years calling astros games, from 1987 through his retirement after the 2012 season. so, when he died on september 27, 2015, it was fitting that the astros added a memorial patch to their jerseys for the remainder of the season.  here's mike fiers' 2016 topps opening day card with the "mh" patch:

hamilton received the ford c. frick award in 1992 from the hall of fame, and was inducted into the national radio hall of fame in 2000.

there were also a couple of memorials in 2016 that i doubt will make their way to cardboard, although i will keep an eye out as new sets roll out this year.  just in case, however, i'll mention them here.

first up, the oakland a's honored former players tony phillips and dave henderson on opening day of the 2016 season.  topps included a photo of the a's team in their 2017 opening day insert set "opening day at the ballpark".  you can see the a's players wearing the "tp" patch above the "hendu" patch on their left chests

you can see it more clearly on mark canha's 2017 topps card

phillips, who played for the a's from 1982 through 1989 and again in his final season of 1999, died in february, 2015 at the age of 56.  he had a pretty good career with 1300 runs scored, over 2000 hits, and over 1300 walks while playing for six different franchises.  henderson is best remembered for his home run in game 6 of the 1986 alcs while with the red sox, but he played for the a's from 1988 through 1993, and was a big part of their dynasty that won three straight pennants from 1988 through 1990.  henderson was 57 when he died in december of 2015.

the last memorial i'll mention was somewhat of a makeshift one.  there was no patch, but rather an armband of sorts.  on april 22, 2016, the twins wore purple wristbands (and other accessories) while in washington d.c. to honor musician and minnesota native prince, who died at his home in chanhassen, minnesota the previous day.  here's a getty images photo of another minnesota native, joe mauer, wearing one of the wristbands on his left arm:

the twins wore the purple again when they returned to target field on april 25, and some of the visiting indian players did likewise, as shown in this getty images photo of brian dozier and marlon byrd

i was sure that topps now would have a card from this game, as oswaldo arcia hit a walk-off home run to win the game in the bottom of the 9th, but as we all know, topps did not apply their "now" criteria evenly across teams last year.  at any rate, it was a nice tribute to prince, who was a fan of his hometown's teams.

so far this year, there are two memorials that i am aware of. the marlins will wear a patch for jose fernandez (continuing the tribute that began during the last week of the 2016 season), and the royals will wear a patch to honor yordano ventura.  i would also guess that the tigers will wear a patch for mike ilitch, similar to the one that the red wings have added to their jerseys.

let's see how long this takes, shall we?

a memorial patch for dewsy

longtime braves coach bobby dews passed away in december of 2015.  the braves wore a memorial patch during spring training the following year in his honor.  you can see the patch on this 2016 topps chrome hector olivera card

many sources reported that the braves would wear the patch during the regular season as well, but i was unable to find photos or cards from regular season play showing the patch. instead, the team wore patches noting the final season of turner field at home, and apparently no patches on the road.

dews was a minor league player and manager in the cardinals' system (where he managed a young scott boras, among others) before joining the braves in 1974.  he held several positions in the organization, but spent much of his 40-plus years with the club coaching at the big league level.  dews was also an author of a couple of books, and was seemingly universally liked and respected by those who knew him.  he was 76 years old when he died,

two card bloggers meet in an office lobby...

last fall i found myself in the pacific northwest on a work related trip, and i reached out to gavin from baseball card breakdown to see if he was up for a quick meet and greet.  i had ulterior motives, as i was hoping for his help in printing a bunch of the custom cards i had created over the past several years.  gavin was amenable to both requests, and that is how, on a sunny afternoon in the city of portland, two card bloggers met in person.

i've now met three - paul from carl crawford cards, brian from highly subjective completely aribitrary (twice), and now gavin.  we had a short chat, and exchanged a few cards.

gavin gave me this 1999 skybox premium todd hollandsworth autographics card

as well as a couple of his more recent customs - this 1990 fleer-ish yasiel puig/madison bumgarner card

and this 1989 upper deck-ish vin scully card

when we met, i had mentioned that i saw the scully on his blog a few days prior, and was hoping i would be able to get my hands on one. a few moments later, i opened the package and there it was!

after we met, gavin went to work on printing many of my custom cards - particularly the 1978 topps update/burger king dodgers that i had created.  he sent them to me just after the new year, along with several other cards, one of which was this 2016 topps archives corey seager card

if this were fifteen years ago, i would have pc's of seager and clayton kershaw.  as it is, i am content to have as many of their cards in my dodger collection and trade off the rest.  this one completes my archives base set from last year.

i never had a pc going for kevin brown, but i do have a ton of his cards as his tenure as a dodger coincided with a ridiculous amount of sets and inserts being printed.  this is a 2004 leaf certified materials mirror red parallel

and it makes me feel ornery just looking at it.

here's a black bordered mini justin turner card from 2016 topps allen & ginter.

who knew that turner would turn out to be such a good player. i wonder if the mets would rather have him back than continue with the annual david wright ambulance brigade.

josh reddick has more dodger cards than he should, given how little time he spent with the team and how poorly he played during that time.  this is one of those 2016 topps holiday cards

it's even one of the metallic snowflake inserts.  yay.

you may have noticed based on recent posts at baseball card breakdown that i sent a bunch of 1965 topps cards to gavin in return for his work.  he also sent some to help me with my set quest, like dan osinski

i wonder if he and gil hodges ever got into a staring contest, and if so, who won.

i am also slowly working on my 1972 topps set, and gavin included a few towards that effort, including one clarence "cito" gaston in action card

by the time this card was issued, the giants' catcher on the card (dick dietz) was playing for the dodgers.  i had to tie this back to the dodgers somehow...

thanks gavin!

two card bloggers walk into a card show....

for the second time, brian from hcsa and i met up at the monthly local card show.  we chatted for a bit and exchanged cards and other baseball related items - twins for dodgers - but only one of us brought a 1941 double play card for the other.

brian reached into the way-back machine and handed over this john wyatt card

that pre-dates all but three cards in my collection.

brian also finished off my dodger team set of 1951 topps red backs with this preacher roe card

and he hit one of my nefarious 9 needs with this 2014 topps high tek fernando valenzuela card

there were some other nice want list needs in the cards brian handed over, too, but i always appreciate a nefarious 9 hit.

here's a nice die cut jackie robinson card from 2015 topps stadium club

and a piece of joc pederson's bat from 2016 panini donruss

i didn't know much about charlie culberson until he hit the division clinching walk-off homer to end vin scully's final home game. brian gave me this 2016 topps heritage high number card of culberson

and i can't help but think that culberson has already had his defining baseball moment.

brian also included a tommy lasorda book in the stuff he gave me, and i plan to read it soon.  i recently finished reading 'lords of the realm' by john helyar which details the history of baseball from the owners' perspective.  it was great, and made me think less of the owners and bud selig than i had in the past.  the book ends with the 1994 strike, so it doesn't address steroids or realignment or the latest round of expansion, but i don't think there were any redeeming efforts by the owners during that time that might have painted them in a better light.  anyway, i would recommend the book to any of you reading this.

thanks for the trade brian - too bad we couldn't meet up at twins fest, but i'm sure i'll see you around!

once again, i urge you to avert your eyes!

i know i should look away from the cardboard destruction, but man, i really do like some of these tristar signa cuts.

this one is the latest addition to my collection

it's from 2008, and features rick monday's 1981 donruss card butchered almost beyond recognition. i do give kudos to the tristar person who made sure to leave the bulk of the 'dodger' text, though.

mo joins the likes of steve garvey, burt hooton, ralph branca, candy maldonado, mike scioscia (x2), steve sax, ron cey (solo and with steve yeager and pedro guerrero), and tommy john in my hall of horrors signa cut collection, and he won't be the last, i promise you that!

the monday card is numbered 04/25 and actually celebrates monday's claim to fame as the first ever player taken in an mlb draft. and, while that occurrence would be better paired with a card from his kansas city a's days, i'm happy to have another hacked up dodger auto in my collection.

a memorial patch for ernie banks

ernie banks, also known as mr. cub, passed away just over two years ago at the age of 83.  he spent his entire major league career with the cubs, hitting 512 home runs as a shortstop and first baseman, and was elected to the national baseball hall of fame in 1977 on the first ballot.

the cubs wore memorial patches with his number 14 on their jerseys throughout the 2015 season in various places.

on their home white pinstripe uniforms, the patch was on the right sleeve, as seen on kris bryant's 2015 topps heritage high numbers rookie performers card

at the all-star game, the patch moved to the chest, as seen on bryant's 2016 topps heritage card

byrant's 2016 topps opening day card shows the patch on the left sleeve of the away blue jerseys

and it was back on the right sleeve on the away grays, including during the 2015 post season as seen on kyle schwarber's 2016 topps opening day heavy hitters insert.

banks debuted for the cubs in 1953, but earlier that year he played for the kansas city monarchs.  the kansas city royals wore memorial patches (and throwback monarch uniforms) in banks' honor on may 17, 2015 during their game with the yankees (who also added the patches to their left sleeves).  the patches featured banks' number 28 that he wore while with the monarchs.  while i have not seen any cards featuring photos from that game, i did find a couple of pictures at getty images.

here's alcides escobar

and here's jacoby ellsbury

aside from being a first ballot hall of famer, banks was also a good, positive person - traits that were rewarded with the presidential medal of freedom in 2013.