meanwhile, back on tatooine...

…andre ethier is circling the bases on his 2008 bowman card,

his 2008 bowman gold parallel card,

his 2008 bowman chrome card,

and his 2008 bowman chrome refractor card.

elsewhere on the desert planet, fred lynn is doing something on his 1991 upper deck card,

while darren daulton makes a play

and brady anderson takes a lead

on their 1994 upper deck cards.

one of tatooine's multiple suns is low in the horizon on julio franco's 1996 upper deck card

and perhaps the other sun is creating shadows on john olerud's 1997 topps card

players like to hit on tatooine thanks to the dry air, like ken griffey jr on this 2006 upper deck national baseball card day card,

larry walker on this 2011 topps lineage card,

and jose reyes on this 2014 topps stadium club card

i think that photo was taken from jabbba's luxury sutite.

how about that black armband for mel allen?

mel allen, the voice of the yankees, was better known to me as the host of 'this week in baseball'.  his trademark phrase 'how about that' was a staple of the show that, along with baseball cards, helped me learn about the game and its players as a young fan in the late 1970's.  allen passed away at the age of 83 in july of 1996, and the yankees added a black armband to their left sleeves in his honor.

here's a 1997 pacific card of darryl strawberry with the armband peeking through

and here's cecil fielder's 1997 pinnacle new card which also gives a glimpse of the armband

the back of the card gives a better view, actually

wade boggs' 1997 topps card is a good example

as is strawberry's 1997 topps stadium club card

that's a nice card even without the armband, as it captures the aftermath of strawberry's career home run number 300, a walk-off job against the royals.  

the card in the memorials binder, however, is this 1997 upper deck card of derek jeter

which features a photo taken a month or so following allen's death.

allen had begun his baseball broadcasting career with the 1938 world series, and he became a part of the yankees' (and giants') broadcasting team during the 1939 season. he took over the main play-by-play responsibilities for both teams in 1940 and continued to do so until he enlisted in world war ii.  following his service, allen returned to the booth - this time for the yankees only.  he wound up calling every world series from 1946 through 1963, as well as pretty much every all-star game during his tenure with the yankees plus some college and nfl football games, too.

allen was fired by the yankees after the 1964 season, although he was still invited to events such as old-timer's games and number retirement ceremonies. he eventually returned to do some broadcasting for the club in the late 1970's and remained a part of the crew into the 1980's.  his 'this week in baseball' hosting duties lasted from the show's inception in 1977 until his death.

who carries reggie smith's career torch?

reggie smith's signature is on my short list of favorites.  harmon killebrew used to preach the importance of a nice signature to young twins players, and i can see reggie doing the same to players for whom he served as a mentor.  i recently bought this 2004 upper deck usa baseball 25th anniversary signature card of reggie

for about $3.  money well spent as far as i am concerned.

reggie was a coach for team usa, and for the dodgers, too after his playing days were done.  i wonder which active major leaguer is carrying his career torch...

on october 3, 1982, reggie suited up for a major league game for the last time as a player. unfortunately, he suited up in a giants' uniform, as his 1983 fleer card attests.

smith ended his big league career that day against the dodgers with an 8th inning fly out against former teammate terry forster who, an inning earlier, had allowed a home run to joe morgan that effectively ended the dodgers' hopes of tying the braves atop the national league west to force a playoff.

terry forster pitched through the 1986 season, getting his last taste of big league action on october 2, 1986 as a member of the american league west champion angels.  here's his 1986 fleer update card.

forster pitched two innings that day, getting oddibe mcdowell to ground out to end the 7th and bring an end to his pitching career as well.

oddibe mcdowell, of course, was himself a member of team usa back in 1984 during the olympics held in los angeles.  here's his 1985 topps team usa subset card.

the olympic baseball games were played at dodger stadium (the dodgers wore an olympic patch in 1984), and team usa lost to japan in the final.  there were no medals given, however, as baseball was just a demonstration sport at that time.

one thing about that 1985 topps mcdowell card - when i first opened some packs in '85, i took a look at the couple of checklist cards i had pulled and reviewed the 'hero' numbers to see if steve garvey was given any respect from topps (his 1985 card is number 450, so yes, he was respected) and i saw that card number 400 was oddibe mcdowell.  i followed major league baseball pretty closely, but did not know who this guy was and actually freaked out a little bit that a player i did not know could command such a number on topps' checklist.

back to mdowell's career now.  mcdowell did not play in the majors for three years following the 1990 season, but he made his way back into the rangers' lineup in 1994.  on august 10 of that year, in what turned out to be the final game of the season due to the players' strike, mcdowell went 0 for 2 with a sacrifice.  that sac bunt, against the mariners' jim converse, was the last time mcdowell went to the plate in his big league career.

converse (seen here on a 1995 topps stadium club card)

returned after the strike, and continued to pitch into the 1997 season.  on may 15, 1997, he was with the kansas city royals and relieved jeff montgomery in a game against the tigers.  converse faced four batters that day, the last of which was jody reed who drew a walk.  converse was pulled from the game and did not pitch in the majors again.

jody reed, the man who spurned the dodgers' free agent offer which led to the pedro martinez/delino deshields trade, saw his career end on august 22, 1997 in a laugher against the brewers.  he's a padre (and turning two) on his 1997 topps card

but he was with detroit when he saw the last of his big league action.  the tigers won the game 16-1, but reed was 0 for 2 including a strikeout in the 9th inning against alberto reyes that turned out to be his final big league at bat.

alberto reyes last pitched in the majors in 2008.  i don't think he had too many cards over the years, so here's a 1996 upper deck collector's choice card from early in his career.

he was with the devil rays when he finished a game against the indians on august 5 of that year.  he faced four batters, the last of which was andy marte who struck out to end the game.  he did not appear in any games after that, and about a week later, reyes was granted free agency.  he signed with the mets, but did not make any appearances for them, either.

andy marte stuck with cleveland through the 2010 season (this is his 2007 topps heritage card),

but hadn't played in the majors since that season until he surfaced with the diamondbacks earlier this year.  he hit a pinch-hit home run in his first big league at bat in almost 4 years, but a few days later on august 6, 2014, he struck out against the royals' greg holland to end the game.  marte became a free agent shortly before the end of the season, so  that may well have been his final big league at bat.  if so, then greg holland (seen here on his 2014 topps update card)

will carry the torch for reggie smith (and terry forster).  i'd say his signature has potential.

1997 cards that should have been for the 1978 topps dodgers

first of all, a heartfelt thank you to all of the veterans of our armed forces.  i'll be trying to meet up with one of my friends who served and buy him a beer.  in the meantime, let's take a look at some cards that topps failed to make in 1997.

i understand that they were printing smaller sets following the downturn in sales thanks to the players' strike a few years earlier, but i have to believe that most collectors would have preferred a 1997 topps tommy lasorda managerial final tribute card over a john mabry highlight.

to make matters worse, upper deck actually did give lasorda a card in their 1997 set, although it was a checklist

i went a step further and gave my lasorda card that should have been a back

with his complete major league managerial stats.  lasorda, of course resigned from managing during the 1996 season due to health concerns following a heart attack.  his replacement, bill russell, led the team to the wild card berth, although the dodgers were swept in the nlds for the second straight season.

speaking of russell, he too gets a card that should have been

as do johnny oates

and dusty baker

i used photos from each of their mother's cookies cards, by the way.

in his only full season as a manager, russell led the 1997 dodgers to a second place finish in the nl west with a 88-74 record.  the dodgers were 4 games out of the wild card (won by the eventual world champion florida marlins), but only 2 games behind baker's giants.  oates, meanwhile, had the rangers at 77-85, 13 games out in the american league west.

memorial patches for umpire john mcsherry

on april 1, 1996 - opening day in cincinnati - home plate umpire john mcsherry collapsed and died of cardiac arrest.  why then, you might ask, am i showing a card from the 1994 upper deck all-time heroes set featuring reggie jackson and lurking dodgers charlie hough and steve yeager?

i'm showing it because the umpire standing behind yeager, number 9 for the national league, is john mcsherry.

mcsherry began his umpiring career in 1971 and worked the world series in both 1977 (as seen above) and 1987.  he also umpired in 10 different national league playoff series and three all-star games, and was calling the balls and strikes for larry dierker's no-hitter in 1976.

i am not sure why exactly, but the mets added a patch to their uniforms in honor of mcsherry for the remainder of the 1996 season.  this 1997 fleer sports illustrated card of todd hundley shows the patch on his right sleeve

the patch is kind of hard to make out because it wasn't really a patch - it was actually embroidered as part of the jersey.  here's a close up

it's a little more clear on bernard gilkey's 1997 topps card

and rey ordonez's 1997 upper deck card

which is the one i have in my memorials binder.

mcsherry's fellow umpires also wore memorials in 1996.  as i recall, at first they wore black armbands as seen on brett butler's 1997 score card

but soon adopted the same embroidery that the mets sported.  in fact, the mets could have adopted the umpires' memorial; i am not sure how that played out.  in lieu of cards, here are some photos (from getty images) of umpires sporting the memorial in 1996

the umps, at some point, went to an actual patch.  here are some photos showing the patch version of the memorial

brett butler, again, with eric gregg sporting the patch

this resulted in patch overload for the umpires in the world series - the mcsherry patch is high up on the left sleeve of the umpires' jacket

it wasn't just national league umpires that wore the patch - here's al clark to prove it

although it seems like most al umps wore the patch on their right sleeves.  again, more photos from getty images

it would appear that charlie o'brien is upset

i was happy to find that photo - not just because of o'brien, but also because it showed the patch on the right sleeve of an al umpire wearing the navy shirt.  that confirms for me that the patch is also shown on this 1997 pacific gary disarcina card

which is a great addition to the memorials binder.  i also have this 2004 topps all-time fan favorite card of eric gregg

in the binder.  how fortuitous that topps used a photo of gregg from 1996.

i do have an actual john mcsherry card in my collection, by the way.  it comes from the 1989 t&m umpires set, and features mcsherry in dodger stadium.

i've got a couple other cards from that set in my dodger stadium binder along with the mcsherry as well - here's eric gregg (again)

and fred brocklander

both hanging out in chavez ravine.

as for mcsherry, he was 51 years old when he died.  he weighed well over 300 pounds, and his passing encouraged major league baseball to work on addressing the health of its umpires.  many, including gregg, lost weight as a result.  unfortunately, following his departure from umpiring, gregg re-gained much of the weight he lost and he passed away at the age of 55 due to a stroke.