The Kansas City Royals game used thread

[TBM]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Got this great 2016 Royals Gold Raul Mondesi batting helmet. The Royals used the gold lettering and numbers on their Friday home games during the 2016 season due to being 2015 World Series Champions.

Raul is a switch hitter so this helmet only got used when he was batting left handed. This helmet was authenticated as being used on Septeember 2, 2016 vs Tigers. He had three at bats and scored a run. I have it photomatched to also being used during the August 19, 2016 vs Twins. During that game Raul had five at bats but only batted left handed three times using this helmet. Those three at bats included a single.

This helmet was used in Raul Mondesi's 22nd and 33rd career games.

[TBM]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Picked up this awesome Raul Mondesi bat at the last Royals game I was at for the season. This is the first bat that the Royals Authentics store had from Raul. Of the three I currently know of this one has the most use. This was MLB authenticated to August 3, 2016 as BATTER - RAUL MONDESI, PITCHER - JAKE ODORIZZI, TOP OF 3, GROUND OUT, LOUISVILLE SLUGGER. Raul was called up from AAA Omaha Storm Chasers and played his first regular season game on July 26, 2016. That makes this bat authenticated to his 9th career MLB regular season game. So far I have photo matched it to all three games in the Tampa Bay series. That means this bat was used in his 7th, 8th, and 9th career MLB regular season games. During this time frame he had no hits but did have some sac bunts and fly outs. If you do not know the reason I am making the distinction of this bat being from some of his first regular season games it is because Raul was the first player in the history of the MLB to make his first MLB appearance in a World Series game. That happened in game 3 of the 2015 World Series where he had one at bat that resulted in a strike out.

This bat has been hammered and I am guessing that he used this bat in AAA also. There are so many seam marks on the barrel, paint is chipped away all over the bat, there are also cleat marks and bat rack marks. It looks like he tried to use the bat as an axe because the end of the bat has nearly been flattened from being pounded on the ground. It is an awesome bat from very early in his MLB career. I hope to pick up some more soon so this one does not get lonely.

[TBM]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Was really lucky to be able to pick this item. I have been wanting one of these for several years and I had a lot of fun researching it. This is an Alex Gordon 2016 Royals game used helmet. Alex is well known for not liking to change out his equipment espically his hats and batting helmets. His 2014 batting helmet was made so famous during the World Series run that it now resides in the Royals Hall of Fame. During my research I found some historic events tied to this helmet that I detailed below.

This was the helmet that Alex used for nearly every single game he played in during the 2016 season. The few games that he did not wear this in were the opening week games against the Mets on April 3 and 5. During these games they wore the gold jerseys. The Royals were also given special permission to wear the gold jerseys on Friday home games. The Royals also wore special jerseys and helmets on May 15, 2016 when they wore KC Monarchs items on Salute to the Negro Leagues day. Also Alex missed 29 games while on the DL from May 22, 2016 to June 24, 2016. In total Alex used this helmet in 116 MLB games and would also bet that he used it in all six of his minor league rehab games too ( four with AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals and two with AAA Omaha Storm Chasers).

Alex will also customize his helmets by taking out the top pad as seen in the pictures below. In speaking with the Royals Authentic's staff he has done this for at least the last four years.

I have photomatched the helmet from April 9, 2016 (the first game the Royals played with out the gold jerseys and fourth game of the season) all the way through the last game of the season on October 2, 2016.
Here are a few highlights/lowlights from the season all while wearing this helmet:

May 6, 2016 KC @ CLE – Alex strikes out for the 1036th time in his career passing Frank White and establishing a new Royals career record for strikeouts. Alex would strikeout 148 times during the season for a career total and Royals record 1148 times.

August 18, 2016 MIN @ KC – Alex hits a Grand Slam off of Tyler Duffy in the bottom of the 4th. It would be the 3rd Grand Slam of his career.

August 24, 2016 KC @ MIA – Alex goes 0 for 3 against Jose Fernandez, including a strikeout. His third atbat of the game in the top of the 6th inning Alex struckout. That was the 210th strikeout of the season for Fernandez setting a Marlins team record for single season strikeouts. #RIPJF16.

Alex hit 17 HRs in the 2016 season (all of them using this helmet). That was the third most HRs of his career.

Alex finished with a .220 BA. His lowest BA since 2010.

His season stats while wearing this helmet (does not include games where he wore the gold or Negro Leagues helmets):

PA – 457, AB – 402, R – 57, H – 91, 2B – 15, 3B – 1, HR – 17, RBI – 37, BB – 47, SO – 133, HBP – 7, SF – 1, GDP – 8, SB – 7.

[esigs]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Was really lucky to be able to pick this item. I have been wanting one of these for several years and I had a lot of fun researching it. This is an Alex Gordon 2016 Royals game used helmet. Alex is well known for not liking to change out his equipment espically his hats and batting helmets. His 2014 batting helmet was made so famous during the World Series run that it now resides in the Royals Hall of Fame. During my research I found some historic events tied to this helmet that I detailed below.

This was the helmet that Alex used for nearly every single game he played in during the 2016 season. The few games that he did not wear this in were the opening week games against the Mets on April 3 and 5. During these games they wore the gold jerseys. The Royals were also given special permission to wear the gold jerseys on Friday home games. The Royals also wore special jerseys and helmets on May 15, 2016 when they wore KC Monarchs items on Salute to the Negro Leagues day. Also Alex missed 29 games while on the DL from May 22, 2016 to June 24, 2016. In total Alex used this helmet in 116 MLB games and would also bet that he used it in all six of his minor league rehab games too ( four with AA Northwest Arkansas Naturals and two with AAA Omaha Storm Chasers).

Alex will also customize his helmets by taking out the top pad as seen in the pictures below. In speaking with the Royals Authentic's staff he has done this for at least the last four years.

I have photomatched the helmet from April 9, 2016 (the first game the Royals played with out the gold jerseys and fourth game of the season) all the way through the last game of the season on October 2, 2016.
Here are a few highlights/lowlights from the season all while wearing this helmet:

May 6, 2016 KC @ CLE – Alex strikes out for the 1036th time in his career passing Frank White and establishing a new Royals career record for strikeouts. Alex would strikeout 148 times during the season for a career total and Royals record 1148 times.

August 18, 2016 MIN @ KC – Alex hits a Grand Slam off of Tyler Duffy in the bottom of the 4th. It would be the 3rd Grand Slam of his career.

August 24, 2016 KC @ MIA – Alex goes 0 for 3 against Jose Fernandez, including a strikeout. His third atbat of the game in the top of the 6th inning Alex struckout. That was the 210th strikeout of the season for Fernandez setting a Marlins team record for single season strikeouts. #RIPJF16.

Alex hit 17 HRs in the 2016 season (all of them using this helmet). That was the third most HRs of his career.

Alex finished with a .220 BA. His lowest BA since 2010.

His season stats while wearing this helmet (does not include games where he wore the gold or Negro Leagues helmets):

PA – 457, AB – 402, R – 57, H – 91, 2B – 15, 3B – 1, HR – 17, RBI – 37, BB – 47, SO – 133, HBP – 7, SF – 1, GDP – 8, SB – 7.

That's awesome! Love the amount of use shown! These days it's becoming the exception to see equipment/uniforms with that much use/wear. Congrats, Travis!

[Oriolesfan29]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Last weekend I acquired this bat used by Hunter Dozier to record his 2nd career hit and 1st career RBI in the 5th inning on the 9/17/16 game against the White Sox. It was authenticated after he broke the bat in the seventh inning of the game. I have included an ap image from that hit and pictures of the bat. You can see the blue marking on the M marucci logo of the bat in the pictures and the dirt spots on top of the Hunter Dozier nameplate. Great exciting find of what I think will be a great up and coming player. It's hard to get anything this early from any player.

[Oriolesfan29]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Ap Image

[Oriolesfan29]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Ap Image Zoomed

[Oriolesfan29]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Image One

[Oriolesfan29]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Image Two

[Oriolesfan29]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Image 3

[TBM]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Oriolesfan29 that's a great looking Dozier bat. Congrats on the pick up, what a great find. Let's hope he has. Great MLB career. Thanks for sharing.

[Shipp_96]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Picked up this awesome Raul Mondesi bat at the last Royals game I was at for the season. This is the first bat that the Royals Authentics store had from Raul. Of the three I currently know of this one has the most use. This was MLB authenticated to August 3, 2016 as BATTER - RAUL MONDESI, PITCHER - JAKE ODORIZZI, TOP OF 3, GROUND OUT, LOUISVILLE SLUGGER. Raul was called up from AAA Omaha Storm Chasers and played his first regular season game on July 26, 2016. That makes this bat authenticated to his 9th career MLB regular season game. So far I have photo matched it to all three games in the Tampa Bay series. That means this bat was used in his 7th, 8th, and 9th career MLB regular season games. During this time frame he had no hits but did have some sac bunts and fly outs. If you do not know the reason I am making the distinction of this bat being from some of his first regular season games it is because Raul was the first player in the history of the MLB to make his first MLB appearance in a World Series game. That happened in game 3 of the 2015 World Series where he had one at bat that resulted in a strike out.

This bat has been hammered and I am guessing that he used this bat in AAA also. There are so many seam marks on the barrel, paint is chipped away all over the bat, there are also cleat marks and bat rack marks. It looks like he tried to use the bat as an axe because the end of the bat has nearly been flattened from being pounded on the ground. It is an awesome bat from very early in his MLB career. I hope to pick up some more soon so this one does not get lonely.

TBM your player collection for Raul is awesome! I love the AAA jersey, especially the expression on your son's face! Priceless. Those Gold Champions unis are really sharp too, especially the batting helmet. Great stuff!

[TBM]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Shipp_96, thanks for the kind words. It really has been a pleasure for me to get these great items of Raul's. I did not intend on collecting him specifically, it just kind of happened out of happenstance. I went to an Omaha Storm Chasers game (Royals AAA team) for the sole purpose of getting a game used jersey from a jersey off their backs auction of Balbino Fuenmayor because I also have his GU 2015 Futures game hat I wanted to get signed. I lost the bid on the Fuenmayor jersey as well as a couple others but ended up winning Mondesi's. My kid was so excited to go down to the field to meet him, get his jersey and get it signed. That started a love affair with Mondesi. That is all he talked about for the next couple weeks so I tried to feed that excitement and started buying Mondesi items. Now my boy has two favorite players #1 Alex Gordon, #2 Raul Mondesi. Every time I get something new in the mail he asks me "is that a Mondesi?" as his eyes get all big and excited.

I've got some more great Mondesi items that I need to get posted so stay tuned.

[Shipp_96]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

Shipp_96, thanks for the kind words. It really has been a pleasure for me to get these great items of Raul's. I did not intend on collecting him specifically, it just kind of happened out of happenstance. I went to an Omaha Storm Chasers game (Royals AAA team) for the sole purpose of getting a game used jersey from a jersey off their backs auction of Balbino Fuenmayor because I also have his GU 2015 Futures game hat I wanted to get signed. I lost the bid on the Fuenmayor jersey as well as a couple others but ended up winning Mondesi's. My kid was so excited to go down to the field to meet him, get his jersey and get it signed. That started a love affair with Mondesi. That is all he talked about for the next couple weeks so I tried to feed that excitement and started buying Mondesi items. Now my boy has two favorite players #1 Alex Gordon, #2 Raul Mondesi. Every time I get something new in the mail he asks me "is that a Mondesi?" as his eyes get all big and excited.

I've got some more great Mondesi items that I need to get posted so stay tuned.

LOL, that is awesome! Good to get your boy involved early like that. Great story. Looking forward to seeing the new items as well.

[TBM]

Re: The Kansas City Royals game used thread

The Royals #1 prospect Raul Mondesi was the first player in MLB history to make his MLB debut in the World Series. That was Game 3 of the 2015 World Series on October 30, 2015. He Struck out against Noah Syndergaard in his one at bat.

Then he became the first player in MLB history to make his regular season debut after having made is MLB debut in the World Series. July 26, 2016 Raul Mondesi was called up to and started for the Royals vs Angels playing second base. This is the ball from his first regular season at bat. Tyler Skaggs threw this ball for two pitches to Mondesi in the bottom of the third inning. A 91.3 MPH four seam fastball for a called strike. The second pitch was an 85.8 MPH Changeup that Mondesi hit to Angels Center Fielder Mike Trout.

This baseball is the first and only ball in the 113 years since the first World Series games that has the distinction of being pitched in the first career at bat of a player to make his MLB debut in the World Series. A truly historic first baseball.