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.

dime box card show haul

i didn't only buy dodgers at the card show last weekend.  there were lots of nice cards to be had in the few dime boxes (and one 5 for $1 box) that i looked through a week ago.  here are some of them.

1996 upper deck ken griffey jr vj lovero showcase insert

this card fits in my collection a couple of ways.  even though i have discontinued almost all of my player collections (including griffey), this card shows him taking a hack on tatooine.  it also fits into my heretofore unmentioned 'number on back' collection, which isn't really a thing.  yet.

double plays abound in the dime box.  here's a 1996 pinnacle summit alex rodriguez card

arod's 1997 upper deck rock solid foundation insert may or may not show a dp turn on the front

but it does on the back

how about a lurker or two?

that's gil hodges and jerry grote on this 1992 donruss coca-cola nolan ryan card.  i'll guess that the other guy is bud harrelson.

we weren't done with double plays, though.  here's a 1992 leaf cal ripken black gold parallel

and a 1993 upper deck sp ripken

and a 1994 upper deck ripken electric diamond parallel

and a 1995 score ripken hall of gold insert

plus a 1997 pacific prism ripken gem of the diamond card

just for fun, i picked out this 1997 fleer sports illustrated ripken card as well

not too many double play turns as a third baseman, unfortunately.

now, i am not a pete rose apologist, but i am a fan of the player.  i have a hard time resisting his cards, especially in dime boxes.  this is a box card from 1986.

it's not from a topps box (those were in the style of the 1986 set, but with red tops instead of black).  instead, this one comes from the 1986 topps stickers box.  it's too bad that someone went back and figured out that ty cobb only had 4189 hits, and not 4191, meaning that rose actually broke the record a few days earlier at wrigley field.

here's a final dime box card - one that also fits into a as of yet unannounced mini collection - it's a 1996 upper deck cal ripken card

maybe someday i'll fully commit to my 'tip of the cap' collection.

tomorrow, i'll show off a few of the 110 mike piazza cards that i rescued from the dime box.  stay tuned.

what's that about mike bordick's butt?

this post was supposed to run last sunday, as a companion to the roberto alomar double play dump.  sadly, i failed to hit 'publish'.

i mentioned earlier that i had some more roberto alomar double play cards to show.  it turns out, there was only one left in the scanned folder - this 1993 colla all-star game issue, which features alomar turning two against the a's in oakland.

that looks like ruben sierra to me, but what is most interesting here is the huge sign hanging above the outfield wall.  it's obviously a reference to a's infielder mike bordick, but what does it say?  bordick's butterscotch?  bordick's button collection?  i don't know.  

what i do know is that, being a middle infielder, there are plenty of bordick double play cards, like this one from 1997 score, although it features him as an oriole.

bordick even shows up on the wrong end of the double play turn sometimes, like the back of chuck knoblauch's 1993 score select card

another thing that i know is that, living here in twins territory, i have access to a cornucopia of knoblauch cards in every dime box at every show or lcs i visit.  such is the case here where i am about to display a bunch of knobby double play cards mostly culled from cheap boxes at various local locales.

1992 score

1993 upper deck fun pack (back in oakland)

1994 pinnacle

1994 score

the score card may or may not be a continuation of the play on the pinnacle card - i would like to believe that it is - as it sure looks like a '5' on the back of the jersey of the sliding player.

1994 upper deck sp

and 1994 upper deck sp die cut

more oakland action on 1995 score

and 1995 score gold rush parallel

here's a 1997 donruss

a 1997 fleer sports illustrated

and a 1997 topps stadium club

i'll end this double play dump post with a 1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond knoblauch card

it's too bad that there aren't any metrodome cards of knoblauch here.  had there been, perhaps we would have seen a sign for 'knoblauch's knothole gang' partially blocked in a confusing manner.

see how well that segue from alomar to bordick to knoblauch worked?

cards from the sandlot

long overdue, here are some cards i received from joe at the sandlot in trade for some amazin's.

1997 fleer sports illustrated vladimir guerrero

remember the expos?  here's another vladdy from a previous life - 1999 topps chrome homerun heroes

and 2000 fleer showcase

apparently, vladdy has a license to skill.  i am worried about the sale of the dodgers.  if you recall, frank mccourt wanted to sign vladdy to a deal when he first bought the team, but he had no money so bud selig put the kebosh on the deal.  now, with some big name free agents out there, i wonder if the dodgers will again be denied thanks to the transient state of the ownership.  as we all know, vladdy wound up with the angels.  here's his 2006 upper deck card

joe also sent some double play cards, like this 1992 donruss triple play card

awesome action, indeed!

how about a 1998 upper deck collector's choice fp santangelo

santangelo eventually played for the dodgers.  here he reminds me of a victorious gladiator.  are you not entertained?
here's a double play card created for the purpose of illustrating part of the twin killing

is that david eckstein that is avoiding the runner?

fret not, there were also some dodgers in the package, including a bunch of cards from 2005 upper deck classics.  like ropes - bill russell

that's a nice photo with the low-rail fencing of dodger stadium in the background.

here's russell's double play partner, davey lopes

i am guessing lopes will go back to number 15 next season since furcal has moved along.
pedro guerrero

there should be more pedro guerrero cards.  thanks joe!