the minnie minoso memorial patch

adam laroche is sporting the memorial patch worn by the white sox for minnie minoso on this 2015 topps stadium club card

following minoso's death at the age of either 89 or 92 in march of this year, the chisox added the patch with minoso's retired number 9 to their jerseys.  minoso had played for the white sox from 1951-1957, and again from 1960-1961, and then again in 1964.  and again in 1976 and 1980.  over those 12 seasons, minoso hit .304 as a member of the white sox with over 1500 hits.  he was a favorite of the fans and owner bill veeck, who had signed minoso for the indians while he was that team's owner, and then traded for him a couple of years later after buying the white sox.

the last two appearances, in 1976 and 1980, were part of a plan by veeck to allow minoso to play professionally in his fourth and fifth decades.  minoso had debuted with the cleveland indians in 1949, and so had played in the 40's, 50's, and 60's during his prime years.  as a 50-year old in 1976, minoso was used as a designated hitter, going 1 for 8 with a single and becoming the third-oldest player to hit safely in a game.  in 1980, minoso was used twice as a pinch-hitter, and was 0 for 2 in those at bats.  minoso wanted to appear in a game in 1990, but major league baseball denied the 64-year old's request.

minoso did get to appear in a game during the 1990's, however, as veeck's son mike - a co-owner of the independent league saint paul saints - gave him an at bat in 1993.  then, in 2003, minoso led off for the saints and drew a walk before being lifted for a pinch runner who was probably at least 50 years younger than the 77-ish minoso.  i was actually at that game as fate would have it - it was also a saints hat giveaway night with green hats provided by general mills brand lucky charms.  good times.

a final word (for now) on memorials

first, let me take a moment to note that today is memorial day. hopefully, we all take some time out of our day to remember those whose service required the giving of their lives.  there have been too many.

many of you know that one of my mini collections is cards that feature memorial armbands or patches.  as an aside, even though the 1999 fleer tradition rod beck card represents the harry caray memorial in my binder, i could not pass up these three sammy sosa cards from 1999 topps stars when i found them in the bargain bin at the lcs a couple of months ago.  here's harry, comin' at you!

now, in addition to beck, i've got quite a few cards in the memorials binder commemorating uniform tributes to teammates, owners, relatives, team employees, victims of tragedies, and others from 1909 through 2014.  however, try as hard as i might, i have not been able to find cards for many of the memorials.  i'll use this post to show some of them using images i've found online.

this 1925 postcard of walter johnson

shows the big train wearing a black armband for christy mathewson.  both the senators and the pirates wore the armband during the 1925 world series.

thanks to uniwatch, i have this photo from 1929 of babe ruth, tony lazzeri, and lou gehrig

wearing black armbands for their former manager miller huggins who passed away late in the 1929 season.

this is a photo from 1931 featuring chuck klein of the phillies

he's wearing a black armband for the team's owner william baker, who died in december of 1930.  baker was known as a tightwad whose penny pinching led to the team's fall from pennant winners in 1915 to 15 consecutive losing seasons.

in may of 1950, pirates slugger ralph kiner graced the cover of sport magazine

his jersey features a black armband that the team wore towards the end of the 1949 season for their teammate tiny bonham. bonham had been hospitalized following a game in august, and had surgery to remove his appendix.  unfortunately, he died due to complications from the surgery on september 15.

[edit: thanks to night owl showing this 1991 sportflics kellogg's card 

on his blog, i now have a card to represent the armband worn for bonham. it looks like the same photo as the magazine cover.]

in 1956, the orioles former treasurer, howard jones, passed away. the team added black armbands to their uniforms as seen on this getty images photo of tito francona

francona is wearing it on his left sleeve, although i've seen another photo with it on the right.

i found this next photo online at spokeo while searching for a different armband.

that's a picture of the angels' jim fregosi waiting to bat against the yankees in july of 1962.  i couldn't find any information about the armband, but knowing that the angels were playing in dodger stadium (or chavez ravine as the angels referred to it) that season, i took a chance and asked dodger historian mark langill if he had any information regarding the memorial.  he was kind enough to answer my question, noting that angel manager bill rigney's father passed away earlier that month, and it was most likely that the armband was worn in the elder rigney's honor.  langill included a copy of a page from the sporting news that noted rigney had missed the previous series to attend the funeral, but returned in time for the games against the yankees.

in 1964, the houston colt .45's wore a black armband for teammate jim umbricht.  this is a picture of manager nellie fox's jersey showing the armband

and here's a photo of ken johnson pitching with the armband

umbricht had been diagnosed with lymphoma late in 1963 following a season in which he posted a 2.61 era in 35 games.  he passed away in april of 1964, and the team, in addition to the armband, retired umbricht's number 32.

i mentioned earlier that i found the jim fregosi photo from 1962 while looking for a different armband.  the memorial i was searching for was the armband that the angels wore for during the last homestand of the 1978 season in honor of their murdered teammate lyman bostock.  the closest i could come was this photo of the club

recognizing a moment of silence in chicago the day after bostock was killed.

the dodgers played an exhibition series in japan following the 1993 season, and they added a memorial patch to their jerseys for that series.  you can see just the edge of the black rectangular patch on tommy lasordas jersey in this photo

the patch was worn for owner peter o'malley's longtime assistant akihiro 'ike' ikuhara who first joined o'malley in 1965.  ike was 55 when he died from stomach cancer in late 1992.

in 1995, the a's lost their owner walter haas, jr. to prostate cancer, and they wore a circular patch with his initials and a dark green armband on their right sleeves in his memory.  here's a getty images photo of mark mcgwire that shows the patch, but not so much the armband

the armband shows up better on this getty images photo of terry steinbach

haas had been the ceo of levi strauss & company since the late 1950's, and he bought the a's from charlie finley in 1980 in order to keep them in the bay area.

across the bay eight years later, in august of 2003, bobby bonds passed away at the age of 57.  the giants, the team for which bonds had played for the first seven years of his career, added a patch with his initials for the remainder of the season.  here's a getty images photo of bobby's son barry wearing the patch

i met bobby bonds at a hot stove dinner in the late 1970's or early 1980's, and he signed my autograph book for me.  he seemed nice, but the thing i remember most is the crushed velvet shirt he was wearing.

card manufacturers didn't seem to use many photos from blue jays home games in the late 2000's.  unfortunately, that meant that i couldn't find any cards that showed the memorial that the team wore during home games only for their former chairman sam pollock in 2007.  instead, i only have this getty images photo of frank thomas to share

pollock worked for the blue jays from 1995-2000, but was better known for his twenty years as an executive with the montreal canadiens of the nhl. pollock helped to build the habs dynasty from the late 1950's into the 1970's, and has his name engraved on lord stanley's cup twelve times.

also in 2007, the nationals

yankees

and red sox,

along with virginia tech alumnus joe saunders of the angels, all wore the virginia tech 'vt' logo (the nationals and saunders wore hats, while the yankees added the logo to their hats, and the red sox put the logo above the red sock patch on their sleeves) in response to the killing of 32 people by a gunman on the university campus on april 16, 2007.  the nats wore the vt hats on april 17 as noted on this 2008 topps year in review card (thanks jeff!),

while the yankees wore the logo on may 23.  joe saunders wore the virgina tech hat during his start on april 20, which is commemorated on his card from the 2008 topps year in review insert set

the red sox also wore the logo on april 20, the same day that they wore another memorial.

the green jerseys and caps that the red sox wore that day (here's another photo featuring david ortiz)

were in honor of the boston celtics' legendary coach and executive red auerbach, who had passed away the previous october.

another one day memorial was worn by the padres in 2011.  they wore their 1984 throwbacks (minus the ray a. kroc memorial) on july 14, and added a memorial patch for their former manager dick williams who had died a week earlier.  here's a photo of heath bell from that game

and here's a better look at the patch which featured williams' initials,

and was not done in the same manner as the kroc memorial - in order to differentiate the two, i would imagine.  williams, of course, led the padres to their first pennant in 1984, and was elected to the hall of fame thanks to his four pennants, two world series titles, and 1,571 career wins as a manager.

in addition to wearing memorial patches for johnny pesky in 2012, the angels sported the stan musial memorial patch in 2013.  here's coach alfredo griffin showing the patch

while the angels had no connection to pesky or musial, former cardinal slugger albert pujols considered stan the man to be a friend and insisted that the team wear the patch during a july series with the cardinals. because they were already wearing a patch for their team doctor, lewis yocum, the angels wore the musial patch only on their batting practice jerseys.

also in 2013, the astros wore a patch honoring the houston fire department and the four firefighters who died during a hotel restaurant fire on may 31.  the astros wore the patch, visible in the getty images photo of jd martinez below

for their june 4-6 series only.

the rangers, meanwhile, wore a 'support west' patch on their right sleeves on july 5 (seen here in this getty images photo of adrian beltre)

to bring attention to aid efforts for the city of west, texas and the families of the 15 people killed by a fertilizer explosion on april 17.

in july of last season, the a's held a 25-year reunion for their 1989 world series championship team.  one member of the team, that year's cy young award winner bob welch, had died at the age of 57 the previous month.  prior to the game, members of the 1989 team each laid a rose on the pitching mound in welch's memory, and the team added a 'bw' patch to their jerseys.  here's a getty images photo of luke gregerson from that july 19 game

and here's a photo of welch's teammates sporting the patch

i am glad that the a's took time to honor welch during this reunion, and i'm glad that welch won his second ring in 1989 instead of 1988.

so far this season, there have been memorials worn for oscar taveras (cardinals), ernie banks (cubs, royals, yankees), minnie minoso (white sox), al rosen (indians), lon simmons (giants), and sara buck (phillies). whether or not they get posted here, i'll certainly be on the lookout for those memorials in this year's update set and next year's offerings, too.

the bruce seid memorial patch

bruce seid was named the director of scouting for the milwaukee brewers in november of 2008.  prior to that, he had been an area scout and cross-checker for the brew crew after spending the early parts of his career scouting for the padres and pirates.

after seid died of a heart attack on september 2, 2014, the team added a memorial patch to their right sleeves in his honor.  you can see the patch on this 2015 topps museum collection ryan braun sepia parallel

seid had also spent a couple of years in the cubs' minor leagues in the early 1980's as an infielder, but didn't advance beyond the low-a ranks.  he was 53 years old when he died.

a dodger black armband for a teammate's wife and some cards that should have been

ken mcmullen, a dodger double dipper and third baseman, lost his 30-year old wife bobbie to breast cancer in april of 1974, just five months after she had given birth to their third child.  he laid his wife to rest on april 8 while most of his teammates (i believe don sutton attended the funeral) were in atlanta to take on the braves.  that night, the dodgers wore a black armband on their left sleeves in honor of mcmullen's wife.  that also happened to be the night that hank aaron hit career home run number 715 to break babe ruth's career home run record.  here's the 1994 topps card that celebrates the 20th anniversary of hammerin' hank's historic home run.

this card represents the mcmullen memorial in my collection because the black armband is visible on al downing's left arm in the background photo.  joe ferguson, the catcher, is wearing the armband, too, but it is obscured by the home plate umpire, satch davidson.

it's too bad that topps didn't find a way to incorporate photos from the game into the 1975 set.  while i appreciate the 1994 card, i decided to try my hand at making some cards that should have been.

here's the card that topps did include in the set - at number 1, in fact.

now here's my take on it

this card gives us the black armbands on both ferguson and dodger shortstop bill russell.  here's another version using a color photo

now we see the armband on downing again, along with one of the guys who chased aaron around the bases.

speaking of downing, even though he allowed the home run (which tied the game), there's no shame in being linked to that kind of history. so, why not use a photo from that night on his card in the set?

and look - there's steve garvey lurking in the background!

i like this card better than his actual card from the set

even though it does feature dodger stadium in the background.

downing walked the next two batters after allowing the home run to aaron, and was removed from the game by manager walt alston.  here's a card showing downing on his way back to the dugout with alston having just handed the ball over to mike marshall

here's the full mound scene, with marshall and garvey, and davidson, i believe.

mcmullen returned to the dodgers and resumed his pinch-hitter role later that week, which must have been difficult even though it seems to be what she would have wanted based on this article from the associated press.  as for the dodgers, they have not worn black armbands since this particular memorial.  fortunately, lots of evidence of the memorial worn for ken mcmullen's wife exists, just not much on cardboard.

[edit - topps included this fantastic card

in 2023 topps heritage, and with the armband being way more visible on davey lopes' sleeve than what the 1994 topps card affords, i've put the new card in my memorials binder]

some recent umpire initial memorials

it seems to me that umpires are showing up on cards less and less these days.  i don't know if it has anything to do with a lawsuit that i recall from the 90's wherein one umpire sued upper deck for using his likeness in a photo for a card without his authorization (anyone remember the specifics of this?).  more recently, of course, we have seen umpires photoshopped out of cards altogether, or at least all but a leg.  there's an umpire in the background of this 2013 topps erick aybar card

which also features ryan doumit at target field.  in fact, the umpire in the photo is alfonso marquez, who wears number 72 seen on his throat protector.  most interesting to me, however, is that marquez is also wearing a memorial patch.

former umpires marty springstead and harry wendelstedt both passed away in the early months of 2012 (springstead in january and wendelstedt in march), and the umpires decided to honor them by wearing patches with their initials during the 2012 season.  here's a usa today photo of angel hernandez with the two patches

unfortunately, the best example i have of these memorials on a card is this 2013 topps chrome yu darvish 1972 insert

with the umpire's arm and patches in the background.  it's like the bigfoot photo.

in august of 2013, umpire frank pulli passed away.  a few months later, as the baseball postseason was getting underway, umpire wally bell died. both umpires were honored with memorial patches, which are seen on the sleeves of the 2013 world series umpiring crew in the getty images photo below

the 'fp' patch for pulli was worn during the last couple months of the 2013 regular season, and the 'wb' patch for bell was carried over into the 2014 season.  it is visible on the left sleeve of the umpire behind nelson cruz on his 2014 topps chrome refractor card

another umpire memorial from a postseason was the charlie williams patch/sticker worn by the umpires during the 2005 world series.  williams passed away in september of 2005. i don't have a card featuring the memorial, but it is visiible on three of the umpires in this getty images photo

joe west, the home plate umpire, put it on his chest protector.

i agree with the notion that, if an umpire is doing their job well, they are unnoticed.  i'd still like to see them on a baseball card once in a while.

the hunt for tom clancy's oriole memorial

best-selling novelist tom clancy, who once made some moves towards purchasing the minnesota vikings, realized his goal of professional sports ownership as an investor in the baltimore orioles.  after clancy passed away on october 1, 2013, the orioles decided to add a memorial to their jerseys for the 2014 season. rather than a black armband (as they had done for jim mckay, another investor), the team went with a patch on the right sleeve bearing the name 'tom clancy'.

the patch shows up on some 2015 topps cards that i have seen, such as this alejandro de aza card

but right now i have this 2014 topps update adam jones power players card

and this 2014 topps stadium club chris davis card

in my memorials binder.  these cards represent the away and home versions of the patch, which would be black text on gray and black text on white.  there are two other versions of the patch that have also found their way onto cardboard at some point.  there is the orange text on black worn on their black alternate jerseys, as seen on kevin gausman's 2015 topps stadium club card

and black on orange worn on their orange alternate jerseys, represented by chris davis' 2015 bowman card.

i'm glad to have cardboard examples of all four.

clancy was best known for his series of novels involving cia operative jack ryan, including 'the hunt for red october', 'patriot games', clear and present danger', and 'the sum of all fears', each of which were made into major motion pictures.  clancy was 66 years old at the time of his death.