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.

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.

double play battle - tony fernandez vs. mark lemke

i've recently obtained a number of cards of former all-star and gold glove winner tony fernandez and former, well, ballplayer mark lemke featuring each of them turning double plays. let's have a look.

1994 pinnacle fernandez

vs. 1994 pinnacle lemke

despite an appearance by double play wizard omar vizquel, the landscape card wins.  lemke 1, fernandez 0.

1994 score fernandez

vs. 1994 score lemke

which also comes in a gold rush parallel form

fernandez looks more graceful on his card, so he gets the nod.  fernandez 1, lemke 1

1996 fleer fernandez

which also has a tiffany parallel

vs. 1997 fleer ultra lemke

i give this one to lemke because he is not a yankee.  fernandez 1, lemke 2.

1998 pacific crown collection fernandez

vs. 1997 upper deck collector's choice lemke

both landscape cards (well, the pacific card is, sort of), but the lemke is so much cleaner, and the outfield fence appears to be level.  not really fernandez's fault, but oh well.  final score is tony fernandez 1, mark lemke 3.

that means we get to see a bonus mark lemke double play card - it comes from 1997 pacific

and features beautiful dodger stadium (at least its old outfield railing) in the background.

way to go, lemke!

fantastic trade with nolan's dugout

it's about time i showed off some of the great cards that kyle from nolan's dugout sent my way in trade a while back.  believe it or not, i am showing only one dodger from the lot - a 1988 fantastic sam's baseball superstars pedro guerrero 'card'.

it also serves as a contest entry with some great although vaguely described prizes.  go here or here to learn more.

the other cards in the package were some really nice 'memorials' (i will save those for other posts) and double plays.  kyle sent along some twin killings that were new to my collection, so let's check them out!

1996 pacific jay bell

1996 pacific tripp cromer

bet you didn't know that cromer is a former dodger

1997 pacific felipe crespo

1997 pacific pat meares

1997 pacific rey sanchez

1998 pacific (is this when they started officially calling this release) crown collection (?) kurt abbott

1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond pat kelly

1998 pacific invincible gems of the diamond luis rivera

yes, this is the same luis rivera who began his career in the 1980's with the expos.  he was out of the big leagues for a couple of seasons in the mid-1990's before resurfacing with the astros in 1997.

2001 upper deck victory benji gil

gil was a pretty highly rated prospect in the rangers' system back in the early 1990's.  he spent two years in the minors after leaving texas before he was picked up by the angels.  gil hit .800 (4 for 5) in the 2002 world series en route to winning a ring, so he has that going for him.

last but not least, 2006 bazooka jack wilson

thanks for the trade kyle!

double play dime box proxy

i have not made it to too many card shows (just one?) this past year, and so my dime box digging has not been occurring at any sort of respectable pace.  luckily, i have nick from dime boxes to help out.  he recently sent over some nice double play turns for the collection.

this 1994 ted williams mike schmidt card could also fit in my 'tatooine' collection.

minor league shortstop mike schmidt.  baseball reference tells me that schmidt turned one double play as a member of the eugene emeralds in 1972.  this may well be that play.  just fantastic.

the rest of these cards will pale in comparison, but are still worth showing off.

1994 topps stadium club luis alicea

1995 score juan bell

a mess of 1997 pacific - kurt abbott

esteban beltre

that double play maestro, brent gates

kevin stocker

1999 topps stadium club scott spiezio

2000 fleer impact warren morris

2002 topps frank catalanotto

2003 topps total tony womack

and 2004 upper deck craig counsell

thanks for the cards nick!  i'll be showing more dime box goodies throughout the day...