Something is wrong with this picture. Yes, there is no actual team depicted on this team card, but perhaps more importantly, there are no fountains beyond the outfield fence of Kauffman Stadium. It's one thing for a terrible team with no discernible national star (Mark Grudzielanek and Emil Brown, anyone?) to downplay a 100-loss season. But it's another thing entirely to rob a sure-to-be-boring card of its one potential highlight. When they don't even bother to turn on the fountains, you know they've given up.
It's almost like the Royals were trying to slip by undetected for the year. It's a bold move, one that I'm not sure I agree with, but an interesting tactic nonetheless. Let me see if I've got this right: if you don't put out a team photo, nobody will remember how much you sucked.
You have to find the 2006 Topps Royals team card...they did the same thing, couldn't get a picture of the team, so they did the stadium shot. I can't believe that they did it again the following year. Maybe that's why they stopped the team cards in 2008...
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
JayBee Anama
Few things in baseball make me more sad than the Kansas City Royals. I was never a fan but when I was a kid they were consistently competetive year in and year out and now they're...not. At all. You used to be able to pencil them into the playoffs every year, even though they'd usually lose to the insufferable Yankees (just like the Rams and the insufferable Cowboys around the same time). They're basically the abandoned amusement park of baseball teams.
ReplyDeleteIts also not centered! Jeez, couldn't they at least move the the right a couple feet and center the shot.
ReplyDelete