no mystery regarding the mr. i patches

last season the tigers wore memorial patches for owner mike ilitch (pizza pizza!) who passed away at the age of 87 in february, 2017.  ilitch was a detroit native who started little caeser's and bought the tigers in 1992 from the owner of domino's pizza.  

there was a white bordered version of the "mr. i" patch that the tigers wore on their right sleeves at home

and an orange bordered version that they wore with their away grays

for the all-star game the orange bordered patch was moved to the chest

ilitch also owned the detroit red wings, and they wore a rectangular "mr. i" patch

they also wore a memorial "9" patch for mr. hockey, gordie howe, who had passed away in june of 2016.

ilitch was also behind the detroit caesers softball team, and therefore the msa discs that were distributed in 1977

 of which i picked up the steve garvey version

a while back. it always comes back to the garv around here...