Fall Classic Sale, or How My Living Room Ended Up Looking Like Superman's Closet

I got to spend some time at the stadium yesterday.

Like last year, the Fall Classic Sale was held on a cold, overcast day. 

At least it wasn't blustery and rainy.

The field and stands looked a little sad. Lonely.

It didn't seem like there was as much "game worn" merchandise as there was last year. 

 Somebody bought the pink breast cancer awareness cleats

 before I had a chance to try them on. . . . 

or even get a picture.

Lot's of Michael Aubrey hats, 

but only numbers in the rest, 

and no one whose number 

I either remembered or wanted.

 Distance markers? Scoreboard numbers? Not sure.

TV Stevie and I arrived at 9:15AM for the 9AM start, 

and I learned that someone had already purchased Jason Botts' locker name plate. 

I was devastated when Josh told me that.

Lots of names I recognized, 

but only Gregor Blanco from this year's team. 

If they're selling his locker name plate, 

does that mean he won't be back in 2012?

I should have bought Joel Peralta's for Sandee.

But it wasn't a complete bust for me this year. Not at all.

You see, there was a rack of red and blue Starter jackets -- with the old Skychiefs logo on them. They still had their tags. They still had tissue stuffed inside them. Rumor had it that they were only $15. Turned out to be true. They were all size LARGE. I tried one on. It was big. I decided to buy it. TV Stevie saw how large it was on me, so tried one on. It fit him. He bought it. Another man heard they were only $15 each, so he grabbed one, not caring if it fit or not.

As we were heading back to our car, TV said, "You know, Anthony would love one of these." So I snapped a photo with my phone, texted it to Sandee with a message, then called her (she was teaching a class and couldn't make the sale). "Yes!" she said. "One for each of us!" 

In the meantime, TV tried calling XG-Man and got voice mail. He left a message. I went back up to the sale. There were five jackets left. I grabbed three. Another shopper asked me how much they were, and I (foolishly, according to TV) told him. He grabbed the last two. We debated whether or not to buy one for XG-Man (that's why I had three), and I said, let's just do it. So I did. While I was inside paying for them, XG called TV and said, "Yes!" I probably should have grabbed one for his wife, but wasn't quick enough.

General Manager John Simone walked by and saw me with an armful of jackets and asked, "Do you have a team?" I said, "No, this is for Row One of Section 207." He laughed and said, "The whole section."

We are going to look so sharp on opening day. Sandee e-mailed later last night, "Who would have thought we could get even more cool than we already are??" 


As we were driving home, TV commented that with five of these jackets, our house was going to look like Superman's Closet. I had no idea what he was talking about, so he explained. It was an episode of THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (the B&W version starring George Reeves upon which TV & I grew up) where a mobster broke into Clark Kent's apartment and found a secret closet, filled with Superman's uniforms. The episode is actually called The Stolen Costume and is considered by some to be the best episode in the series. I don't remember it at all.

Then TV observed that only Maven didn't have a new jacket, but that he wouldn't want one anyway, because he refuses to wear anything with SKYCHIEFS on it. His loss.