During the 2020 Major League Baseball season you may have noticed that all umpires are wearing three square patches featuring the initials EC, CM, and RR on their left sleeves.
What are these patches for? Good question.
All three are memorial patches, paying tribute to three former MLB umpires who have died since the end of the 2019 regular season.
“EC” is for Eric Cooper who umpired his last game just two weeks before his death last fall at the age of 52. Cooper umpired his first Major League game in 1996 and was part of the crew for the 2005 All-Star Game as well as the 2014 World Series between Kansas City and San Francisco.
“CM” is for Chuck Meriwether, a big league umpire from 1987 to 2009, who died last October at the age of 63. Meriwether was behind the plate when the Red Sox beat the Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series ending their lengthy championship drought.
“RR” is for Rick Reed who was a Major League umpire for over thirty seasons, from 1979 through 2009. Reed worked in seven postseasons including the memorable 1991 World Series between Atlanta and Minnesota as well as appearing as himself in the film For the Love of Game. Reed died on July 16, 2020 at the age of 70.
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