umpire black armbands for lee weyer and perhaps dick stello, but definitely for augie donatelli and bill kunkel

just a few weeks before the 1988 all-star game, national league umpire lee weyer died of a heart attack. at the midsummer classic, the umpires wore black armbands in his honor.  this 1989 t&m umpires card of the all-star crew

shows the armband on the right sleeves of the nl umps, as well as one of the american league umpires.  here's a posthumous card of weyer from the same set,

with the ump holding court in dodger stadium.  the back of the card tells his story

i believe that the national league umpires wore the armbands for the remainder of the season, and that the reason that they wore them on their right sleeve was because they already had a black armband on their left sleeves.  here's a card, also from the 1989 t&m umpires set, of nl ump greg bonin that shows the dual armbands.

and here's a getty images photo that shows one of the umpires (randy marsh, i believe) at the 1988 all-star game

with an armband on each sleeve.  the fact that the american league umpires only had the black armband on their right sleeve, along with the fact that gary darling is wearing only one armband on his 1989 t&m umpires card (and it's on his left sleeve)

tells me that it was the one added for weyer.

so, for whom were the umpires wearing the armband on their left sleeves for?  well, national league umpire dick stello had been killed in november, 1987 in a car accident.  he was standing between two cars on the side of a road in florida when the rear car was hit by another vehicle, crushing stello to death.  yikes.  stello, who was once married to chesty morgan, had been an umpire in the senior circuit since 1968, and i would expect that the umpires would have worn an armband in his honor.

here's another card from the 1989 t&m umpires set, featuring tom hallion

the card only shows the armband on the left sleeve, but he would also be wearing the one on the right since this photo comes from a game played on august 18, 1988.  kevin gross is walking off the field in the background, as the dodgers beat the phillies 2-1 that day with hallion calling balls and strikes.

i found another card that shows the armband on the right sleeve - this 1989 upper deck ron gant card has a play at third base on the back, complete with an umpire present

with the armband.  that photo comes from a game in september of 1988, since that was the month that the braves moved gant to third, and that also comes after the all-star game when the armbands were added to the right sleeve.

now that we've got the memorial armbands for weyer and stello figured out, i am a bit perplexed by john kibler's 1990 t&m umpires card

he's wearing an armband on his right sleeve.  sure, this could be a photo from 1988 post-all star break, but the stadium in the background looks kind of spring training-ish.  any ideas?

a couple of years later, in may of 1990, former umpire augie donatelli died at the age of 76.  in august, national league umpires began wearing black armbands in his honor, as seen on the back of todd hundley's 1991 upper deck card

that photo comes from either august 25 or 26, 1990, and features either bob davidson or charlie williams crouched behind mike scioscia.  i'd guess it's from the 26th with williams behind the plate, because the only time hundley hit with scioscia catching on the 25th was in the top of the 14th inning, and it would have been dark(er) by that time, with a likely smaller crowd on hand.

anyway, donatelli had been a national league umpire for 24 years, and was the founder of the major league baseball umpires association.  he officiated in five world series and four all-star games, and may be best remembered for his penchant for ejecting managers and also for absconding with a couple of cardinal hats following their 1967 world series win.

i'll finish this post with a note regarding another umpire honored with black armbands.  following his death in may of 1985 after a long bout with cancer, american league umpire bill kunkel was honored by his fellow umpires who wore a black armband during the 1985 all-star game (and perhaps during the regular season).  i've found a getty images photo of one of the umpires during the 1985 all-star game with the armband visible on the left sleeve

kunkel had been a pitcher in the major leagues for a short time before turning to umpiring.  he began his big league umpiring gig in 1968, and also served as a referee in the nba for a time.  he was 48 when he passed.

in recent years, the umpires have gone to wearing initials as memorials (as they did for a. bartlett giamatti in the 1989 world series) which makes it a bit easier to dissect.

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.