Sports Card Tour 2018 - Kansas City

Happy first day of May! The Collector's Sports Card Tour is chugging along to stop number 20. Today we're in Kansas City.

Kansas City has two pro sports teams - the Royals and the Chiefs. The Royals won World Series titles thirty years apart, in 1985 and 2015. The Chiefs won Super Bowl IV after the 1969 season, but have not returned to the big game since.

Len Dawson passed for an astounding 142 yards and was named Super Bowl MVP. (It was a different game back then.) Before writing this post I did not know Dawson was in the Hall of Fame.

In my opinion, the greatest player in Chiefs history is the late, legendary linebacker Derrick Thomas. That said, I never saw Dawson play. Or Bobby Bell. Or Buck Buchanan.

Perhaps Tony Gonzalez is the greatest player in Chiefs history. Perhaps not. But he is the greatest tight end in NFL history.

The greatest player in Royals history is unquestionably George Brett.

I have about 35 George Brett cards in my collection, including a relic and a rookie card:

These are the newest additions to my Brett collection:

The Upper Deck All-Time Heroes card was in the big box o' mystery; the Stadium Club card was a dime box find at the Milford card show. I also have two Staring Lineup figures (one from 1988, one from a later Legends series) and this oddball..

No idea where I got this card, or what it is. Does anyone know what I have here?

Did you know that Lorde wrote her song "Royals" after seeing this photo of a young George Brett? And that George Brett met Lorde after hearing how he inspired the song? And that San Francisco radio stations banned the song during the 2014 World Series?

Brett is the only Royals player in the Baseball Hall of Fame* - but Kansas City has seen plenty of other legends grace its ball parks.

*I'm not counting Harmon Killebrew as a Royal

The Negro League's Monarchs had dozens of great players in their 45 year-history, including Satchel Paige, Buck O'Neill, Turkey Stearnes, Hilton Smith, Cool Papa Bell, Ernie Banks, and Jackie Robinson. It seems appropriate that the Negro League Museum is in Kansas City.

Somehow I don't have any Monarchs cards in my collection... but I do have a few cards of a much less successful franchise that succeeded the Monarchs in Kansas City.

These are from my 1956 Topps set build.

The Athletics moved from Philadelphia in 1955, and unofficially served as the Yankees' minor-league team until relocating to Oakland in 1967. 

The expansion Royals succeeded them two years later. 

Dick Howser played for the Athletics and managed the Royals' 1985 World Series winners. He passed away in 1987, which was probably the first baseball-related death I was aware of. This card came from P-Town Tom, in a stack of about twenty 1963 Topps singles.

Frank White is the only Royal other than Brett (and Howser) to have his number retired by the team.

Jersey guy Willie Wilson played for Summit high school in the early 1970's. My father-in-law said Wilson was the best amateur player he ever saw.

Apparently I saw George Brett play, at the tail end of his career. Wish I could remember anything about this game. Based on the date, the tickets might have been a birthday present - and I do remember that my mom once bought Yankees tix through a bus tour to the stadium. When we got there the seats were so high up in the second deck above first base that my mom couldn't stay in them (now I know where I inherited my fear of heights.)

Btw, George Brett got three hits and the Royals won 7-0.

The Chefs..er, Chiefs reached the AFC Championship game in 1993, led by veteran acquisitions Joe Montana and Marcus Allen. 

1993 SP is probably my favorite football set of all time.

You probably know that the Packers defeated the Chiefs in Super Bowl I. 

But did you know that Sports Illustrated predicted those two teams would meet in Super Bowl XXXI? (they were half right.)

Marge, I want you to draft my fantasy football team. My team name is Somewhere Over the Dwayne Bowe, and my password is "annoyed grunt."

I have lots of great running backs in my Chiefs binder pages. Holmes, Charles, and Johnson all had sensational seasons in K.C. - but not quite enough for my star player box.

The rest of my Chiefs hits. The Trent Green gold refractor was a 'sort by lowest' COMC purchase.

The rest of my Royals hits. Actually..I didn't scan up any recent Royals, did I?

Carlos Beltran was in and out of my star player box for years. But now that he's concluded what will likely be a Hall of Fame career, these cards will stay put. Beltran could have played in back-to-back World Series had he returned to the Royals in 2014, but opted to sign with the Yankees instead. (wait.. are you sure that's right?)

As someone who suffers from social anxiety issues I should be more sympathetic to Zack Grienke. But he's kind of a turd - just ask fellow memorabilia hobbyist Pat Neshek.

This was the only decent card I pulled from an ill-advised pack of Archives I purchased from a Shop Rite vending machine. I think the pack was $3 - and the machine ate my $1 pack of Topps Basketball. So basically I paid $4 for this card. Not doing that again.

Kansas City was once home to another royally-named franchise. The NBA's Royals left Cincinnati in 1972; since there was already a team called the Kansas City Royals the basketball team was renamed the Kings. The franchise moved again in 1985, this time to Sacramento.

The NHL has seen its share of short-lived franchises, but few have come and gone as quickly as the Kansas City Scouts. Joining the NHL as an expansion team in 1974, the Scouts moved west to Colorado after just two seasons.

Six seasons later, the franchise moved to New Jersey and became the Devils. A mural in the upper concourse of the Prudential Center showed Scouts fans filing into Kemper Arena (and Rockies fans filing into McNicholls Arena.)


Royals card I'd like to own: A George Brett sunset card from 1994 Topps.

Chiefs card I'd like to own: A Brandon Flowers rookie card. Because he's a Killer.

Favorite Royals player: Salvador Perez

Favorite Chiefs player: Travis Kelce or Kareem Hunt

Our next tour stop should be Las Vegas, but I don't have any Golden Knights cards yet. That means the next stop is a big one: Los Angeles. And since we're headed to Hollywood (and Collecting Cutch has been a bad influence on me) here's another pic of one of my favorite actresses, Kansas City native Katherine McNamara.

Kat was filming the first season of Shadowhunters in Toronto during the 2015 ALCS between the Royals and the Blue Jays. She asked her Twitter followers if she should cheer for the locals or her hometown Royals (most of them said Toronto.)

Which actress would you like to see at the end of my L.A. post (or posts)?

Thanks for reading!


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