Boys of Fall

Happy Halloween Eve to you all! And perhaps more importantly, Happy Let’s Throw Fire in the World Series Day! As the Royals prepare to take on the Mets in the Big Apple in Game 3 of the World Series tonight, the rest of us have to work boring jobs until we can go home and stuff our faces full of fun size candy bars. Bon appetit! (side note: I would totally go trick or treating tomorrow night if I lived close enough to a neighborhood. And if you have something against giving adults free candy, think of it this way: every piece of candy I eat is one piece of candy that a child does not eat. I am thereby saving lots of obesity and diabetes! So please feel free to join the cause to end childhood obesity/diabetes and send me your candy. I digress)

I decided to dress up this year as a baseball card, since I have recently started collecting those beautiful pieces of cardboard again. What a thrill that has been, especially since the Royals have had an amazing year. However, even though Topps (the only card company that can use MLB team logos on their products) has a Series 2 product that comes out in the middle of the season and an Update series that comes out in the postseason (the point of which is to create cards of rookies and traded players who do not have cards yet), there is no Royals card of Ben Zobrist.

This is a huge shame because Ben Zobrist has been a STUD for the Royals. He batted .284 with 7 HRs, 23 RBIs, 29 walks, and 16 doubles in 59 regular season games for KC, all while playing both infield and outfield positions (and ultimately taking the spot of the injured Omar Infante). He has been HUGE in the postseason as well, smacking 17 hits, 2 HRs, 6 RBIs and scoring 11 runs in 54 at bats (.315 batting average), helping all of Kansas City to forget about Infante in the process. 

So to remedy the situation of Ben Zobrist not having a Topps MLB card, I decided that my Halloween costume this year would be a 2015, limited edition, throwback Topps card of Ben Zobrist. I chose the 1985 Topps design to honor the 30 years that have passed since George Brett and Co. won it all. I added this year’s World Series logo to make this card a special edition. And most importantly, you will see Ben Zobrist’s bearded face adorning a Royals uniform. If you look close, you can also see the Royals tribute to “Trap Queen” by Fetty Wap, the rap song they fell in love with this year. Surely someone would give me some candy wearing this!?!

Tonight’s game marks Yordano Ventura’s 9th postseason start, which is the second most all time for a pitcher before their 25th birthday. The Royals have won 8 of those 9 starts. That is tremendously amazing. 

Even more amazing is that the Royals are 20-8 in the past 2 postseasons, good for a win percentage of 71.4, giving Ned Yost the highest win percentage of any MLB manager in the postseason OF ALL TIME. 

Not to mention that after Alcides Escobar hit his inside-the-park home run in Game 1, all 9 of the Royals regular starters have hit a home run in the postseason. No other team in this year’s postseason has accomplished that. Forget football, the Royals are the real Boys of Fall.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween and make sure you tune in for the game tonight!