2022 memorial patches on display

there were a handful of memorial patches worn during the 2022 season, and i've found them all on cardboard, with the exception of the umpire memorials. those are tough to find these days as the umps don't get a lot of card time.

i may wind up swapping out some of these cards for 2023 issues that show the patches a bit better, but for now, here's a look at who was being remembered during the 2022 season.

jerry remy - the patch that the red sox wore for remy is visible on this 2022 topps archives trevor story card

it looks like the red sox moved the patch to the right sleeve when they wore their city connect jerseys, as shown on this 2023 topps nick pivetta card:

remy was a boston fixture. he played for them for the last 7 years of his 10-year career and he moved to the broadcast booth a year or two after he retired as a player in the mid-80's. remy was inducted in to the team's hall of fame in 2006 and continued to broadcast - aside from a few leaves of absence - until shortly before his death in october of 2021. it was no surprise to me that the team honored remy with a patch.

kimera bartee - the tigers wore a patch on their right sleeves in memory of bartee. it can be seen on this 2022 topps now spencer torkelson card

but the cards i have in my collection for the patch are this 2022 topps update eduardo rodriguez

and 2022 topps archives akil baddoo

cards. the tigers continued their tradition of color matching the patch to their road uniforms which is a nice touch. i like the rodriguez card because we get a glimpse of some of the tigers' retired numbers in the background.

bartee spent four fairly offensively forgettable years as a player with the tigers in the late 1990's but was serving as their first base coach when he died in december of 2021. while he coached in a couple other organizations, 2021 was his first year with the tigers. based on what i have read, he was very well liked by the players and staff, which explains why they recognized his passing with the patch.

art stewart - the royals wore a patch on their right sleeves to honor stewart, a front office executive who passed away in november of 2021. you can see the patch on this 2022 topps now bobby witt jr card

like the tigers, the royals had two versions of the patch. one was the blue one you see above and on this 2022 topps update witt jr card

coupled with the home whites, and then again on this 2022 topps now nick pratto card

which shows the patch with the away grays.

for their blue jerseys, the royals switched to a white patch which is visible on this 2022 topps stadium club witt jr card

featuring the away royal blue jerseys, and this 2022 topps throwback thursday witt jr card

which shows the home baby blues. i have the latter four cards in my memorials collection. maybe in 2023 there will be a witt jr card feature the grays and i can make it a clean sweep of witts.

stewart joined the royals back in their expansion year of 1969 and served as their director of scouting for many years. starting in 1998, he was made an assistant and later advisor to the general manager and remained in that role until his death. obviously, one of the longest tenured royal employees is deserving of the memorial patch!

ray fosse - the a's recognized the passing of their former player and longtime broadcaster with a patch worn on their right sleeves as seen on nick allen's 2022 topps update card:

i've gone for the chrome update version for my collection, however

fosse may be best known for being bowled over by pete rose in a play at the plate during the 1970 all-star game while he played for the indians, but he joined the a's in time for the last three years of their four-year pennant run in the 1970's. fosse won rings as a result in 1973 and 1974, hitting a homer off of don sutton in the latter fall classic. he retired after another stint with the indians and limited stops in seattle and milwaukee.  

after retiring he eventually returned to the a's in a front office/public relations capacity before moving to the broadcast booth in 1986. he remained a part of the a's broadcast team for the next 35 years before passing away in october of 2021, so it was no surprise that they wore the patch in his honor. as far as i can tell, they only wore the patch on their home whites, however, so i was very happy to find this card with the patch so prominently shown.

roland hemond - the longtime baseball executive passed away in december of 2021, and the diamondbacks wore a patch on their right sleeves during spring training in 2022. you can see the patch on this 2022 topps fire alek thomas card:

i figured i would have to wait for 2023 bowman or topps heritage to find a spring training shot with the patch, but there it is in fire.

hemond began his career as a big league executive with the boston braves in 1951 and stayed with the club as they moved to milwaukee, winning a ring with them in 1957. he later joined the angels in their inaugural year of 1961 to become their scouting director and then took a job with the white sox after the 1970 season to become their director of player personnel. he left the white sox to join the commissioner's office in 1986, but returned to the team life in 1988 as the orioles' general manager. he left the orioles to join the diamondbacks in 1996, and left them after the 2000 season to return to the white sox. then in 2007, he left the white sox to return to the diamondbacks and it looks like he retired in 2017 at the age of 88. whew. what i am saying is that hemond was a baseball lifer.

he was named the executive of the year twice, including in 1989 which makes sense as that team won 33 more games than they had in 1988 and finished just 2 games out of first place in the american league east. he was also awarded the buck o'neil lifetime achievement award by the hall of fame in 2011. i think it's great that the diamondbacks wore the patch in his honor, even if it were just for spring training.

vin scully - this one really hit me as a lifelong dodger fan. scully passed away on august 2, 2022 and the dodgers were quick to add a memorial patch to their right sleeves. you can see it on this 2022 topps now mookie betts card

but it is more visible on this 2023 topps miguel vargas card:

the vargas card is the one in the collection for this patch. i picked up the mookie card because i wasn't sure how many cards would be produced showing vin's patch on its own, since the dodgers added another patch in mid-september...

maury wills - the dodger great and 1962 national league mvp passed away on september 19, 2022 and the team added a patch to honor him as well. it is visible below scully's patch on this 2022 topps now miguel vargas card

i have written about scully and his impact on the game and my fandom many times. he was simply the best. similarly, i don't feel the need to write a bunch about wills, as i've featured cards of his over the years with plenty of narrative. i will note that he was the fourth member to be added to the "legends of dodger baseball" group, an honor that is just short of a number retirement (an honor that would become automatic were wills ever enshrined in cooperstown). wills is the second of the now five members to pass away after being so honored, following don newcombe who passed away in 2019. newk also was honored with a jersey patch.

i also wanted to note that i've upgraded the card that i have in my collection representing the patch the yankees wore for whitey ford during the final game of their 2020 postseason run. i found this 2021 topps gypsy queen gerrit cole card

that shows the "16" patch (above the patch for hank steinbrenner) better than the aaron judge card i had in the collection previously. plus, i used a cole card to show the 2021 version of the ford patch, so there's some consistency there.

back to 2021 - i mentioned up top that umpires also wore patches to honor a couple of their ranks who passed away. they wore the standard square patches on their left sleeves for terry cooney (tc) and bill haller (bh). cooney retired back in 1992 (he was one of the umps that was on the field for the dodgers' 1981 world series victory) and passed away in march of 2022. haller was the brother of former dodger tom haller, and he passed away in august of 2022 after being retired from on-field activity for almost 40 years.  these patches were worn inconsistently and only for a short time - perhaps so as to not draw attention from the ftx sponsorship patches.  here is some getty images photographic evidence of the cooney patch

and the haller patch

i haven't seen any cards in 2023 topps series 1 that show either of these patches, but i'll keep an eye out.

i do have a few cards that i don't think i've shown before in a memorial patch post for other umpires, however.  this 2021 topps stadium club ozzie albies card

shows the "ec" and "rr" patches that umpires wore to honor former umpires eric cooper who passed away in october of 2019 and rick reed who passed away during the 2020 season. 

and this 2021 topps heritage albert pujols in action card 

shows a couple of the patches, including the "cm" worn for the late chuck meriwether who had also passed away in october of 2019. i am still keeping an eye out for a card showing the patch that was added in the postseason that year to honor derryl cousins.

cousins passed away during the world series, so the "dc" patch was only worn in a couple of games.

the umpires wore the "dc" patch again, along with a "ps" patch for umpire paul schrieber, during april of 2021

this was before they added the ftx advertisements to their shirts. those ftx patches show up plenty, but i haven't seen any cards showing the two memorial patches, unfortunately.

speaking of ftx, i wonder what impact, if any, additional sponsorship patches that the owners choose to add to players' jerseys will have on memorials in the future. i've seen the padres and their motorola patch on the sleeves (it looks like all the sponsorship patches go on the sleeve representing the players' dominant hand) in spring training this year, and the nike patch is already clogging up the front of the jersey, although chest patches are usually worn on the left side. maybe we will see a return to black armbands as a result. we will see once the regular season gets going, as i expect to see memorials for bruce sutter, sal bando, tim mccarver and others who have unfortunately passed during the offseason.