My son and I leave the house at 7 tomorrow morning to catch a flight to Atlanta. His Christmas present. We'll see all three games there, get home Sunday night and then gather up the wife, daughter and boyfriend and head to the home opener. I'll go again on Wednesday, courtesy of MASN's kind offer to all us blogging types (I guess that means I have to be nice to MASN between now and then).
I will also be at the Saturday and Sunday games against the Marlins and the Wednesday game against the Braves. So if my counting is correct, that's five of the next six, seven of the next nine and eight of the next 12. If only the Nats could put up a similar line of victories.
Part of today will be spent preparing for all this travel. I'm digging through all my stuff and my wife is right (for once). I really do have way too much Nationals stuff.
This is not an exact count but it is pretty close. I have:
*Five jerseys (home, road, alternate, two different BP). Need a new road and new home (somehow has a big stain). I'm watching eBay for the new roaders. Not paying stadium prices.
*Four sweatshirts (grey, red, blue hoodie and red zip hoodie)
*Two jackets (one light, one heavy) plus a fleece and a windshirt. PLUS one of those things Frank used to wear. My wife bought it for me. Said she was tired of hearing me bitch about Frank not doing anything. Now I can just wander out and change pitchers myself.
*10 t-shirts (two tie-dyed!)
*One cool-wick type of shirt thing.
*Three golf-style shirts and two "sports" shirts for lack of a better term. Short-sleeved, button-up with collar. Both were Father's Day presents. So were the golf shirts, come to think of it. Being a Nats fan has made me cranky and miserable. At least I'm an easy gift target.
*Eight bobbleheads. Two of them (Zimmerman, Guzman) are still on the team. Plus two President bobbleheads.
*A squishy pillow with the logo on it for my naps. A welcome mat that is inside the front door (one of the dogs naps on it, no further comment). A money clip. Two watches (red for home, blue for the road). A golf ball marker for if I ever start playing golf again. Countless pins and souvenir baseballs. One of them signed by Livan, my man crush.
*A magnificent frame job on the poster the Post put out of last year's opener, a Christmas gift from my wife. But she won't let me put it over the mantel. My son wanted to find a picture of THE home run and frame that. Claims he couldn't. So he framed up Eric Maynor's winning shot against Duke from two years ago.
*About 60 hats. Yeah, I know. Two more due in today. Sue me, I'm bald and I like hats. Half of them are headed for the dumpster soon, I promise. To my credit, I do wear the things (pretty much all the time now that I'm unempl *** self-employed).
Toss in FOUR tickets on one of the 21-game plan and the ridiculous amount dumped on food and drink and I think I can claim I have a significant investment in this team. Enough that they ought to allow me to make one trade per season.
I tried to get a Nationals collar and leash for Ella Pupadupalous but got overruled on that one. Ah, but the season is young and Petco is but a mile away.
How much do you have?
10 comments:
2 fitted road caps (one wool, the other is the new material -- worn all the time)
1 fitted home cap (new material, only worn for home games or with my throwback white Capitals sweater)
1 home jersey (replica)
2 giveaway t-shirts
1 stadium blanket (looks like it will get used for the Home Opener again)
1 red lanyard (giveaway)
2 red rally towels
My baby boy has a Nats windsuit, onesie and cap
My wife has a couple of giveaway 2 shirts and a road and home cap. I wish they sold decent women's tank tops, I'd get her one.
I'm hoping to get a flag for outside by Monday morning. I want the new road jersey too.
How do you usually wear your bobbleheads? I've had mine made into earrings. Not only do I show my Nats pride by wearing them, the sheer weight of them tends to pull my head down making it hard for me to actually watch the game. Saves a lot of pain! But my ears do start hurting by about the fourth inning. It's a tricky thing balancing the pain medication with last call in the seventh inning...
I turned one into a hat, one into a cell phone holder and the others into a belt!
Actually, they're lined up on my collector's case along with all my Secretariat stuff (a post for another day!)
Let's see....off the top of my head:
1 fitted wool road cap (signed by Jamey Carroll)
3 other fitted caps (home, the DC batting practice one and another DC one)
4 giveaway hats/visors (one signed by Nick Johnson)
3 jerseys (home, original away, batting practice)
3 player t-shirts (Wilkerson, Guillen and Soriano...all of whom were gone within 3 months of me getting their shirts. FJB, wanna buy me an Olsen shirt?)
5 other t-shirts
1 pair of boxers
1 sweatshirt
1 windbreaker
Zimmerman bobblehead
2 Mini-bats
Brad Wilkerson keychain (my first Nats mancrush)
My dad's got the Opening Day poster from the Post framed as well.
1 home cap, 1 road cap, old alt cap, new alt cap, stars and stripes W cap, 4 Senators caps, 21 T-shirts, 2 sweatshirts, 1 on-field jacket (home), 3 knit winter caps, think thats it.
Let's see... 30 or so caps in various colors/styles (most freebies at games)..
One 2006 alt red jersey, two home white jerseys
A bunch of t-shirts (some from the bazooka, some bought), tank top, capri sweats
About 20 balls
Bobbleheads (missing some - like Dmitri and 2 presidents)
3 bats (one pink mother's day one, one signed by Manny Acta, and both halves of a broken bat from spring training)
Joel Hanrahan cleats from when he was with the dodgers
Red lanyard
2 stadium blankets
Floor mat (on my porch)
Beer mugs
A collection of 50 Nationals branded aluminum Bud bottles (snort)
that's all I can think of off the top of my head!
2 official wool caps(one red, one blue) that both are a little tight
1 modern fabric stretchy red cap that fits a little better (I wear size 8)
2 Green caps, 2 visors (one in each color), a red wool DC cap (signed by several minor leaguers including JMax and Mike O'Conner at a Wizards game this winter), a Red/Blue wool DC cap and a cheesy nylon red/blue Curly W giveaway cap.
(not to mention the two kids caps, and my wife's 2 caps in red and white)
2 pullover winter hats/skullcaps
2 lunch bags, used alternately almost every work day
2 lightweight giveaway blankets, both appropriated by my 2 1/2 yr old daughter for her bed and known as "red" and "blue."
2 pull over hoodie sweatshirts, one of which I keep in my office to take to Spring games.
1 red and 1 blue lined jackets
1 red windbreaker pullover
A flag by the front door
About 9 giveaway t-shirts... Have you ever noticed that the ones from 2005-2007 were MUCH higher quality?
An umbrella
Bobbleheads... banished to my office or the top of the cabinet in the master bath, well out of little kids' reach. Jose and Ryan are both missing arms as a result of past mischief.
A full set of plastic plates, cups and dishes.
2 Beer mugs
Countless plastic beer cups
There is no such thing as too much stuff, if you ever decide to get rid of some of it, I want to take a look at some of it b4 you do.
Three short-sleeve Nationals t-shirts (two from 2005 opening night, one a Jose Guillen jersey shirt)
A long-sleeved Nationals t-shirt
A Jose Guillen bobblehead doll
Hats: Every minor-league affiliate (including the Sand Gnats and the Zephyrs from the early years).
Home road curly W hats. Navy blue and the red and blue DC hats. Couple of green curly W's hats. A hat with Washington on side, Nationals on the other with stars at the bottom. And navy blue with red block letter W hat from the 1950s. And a red floppy hat with a DC on it.
About 13 or 14 pins (including one from every opening day).
--road Wilkerson jersey
--old red replica jersey
--jersey off Jesus Colome's back, autographed, in last game at RFK (under glass)
--new road script Washington (i did pay stadium prices, rather, my wife did. it was a b-day present)
--Soriano t-shirt
--wool curly W red cap
--BP blue interlocking DC cap
--new red relax fit curly W
--two camo curly W's caps
--one white with green curly W
--one red with interlocking DC cap
--one red with "Washington Nationals" cap
--road gray coaches jacket
--gray hooded sweatshirt
--several giveaway t-shirts that don't fit
--several low quality giveaway caps that don't fit right
--every promotional item the team has ever given away
--window stickers for the cars
--throw rug at the bottom of the stairs to our rec room
--wall clock with logo on the face
--ticket lanyard
--my one game-day press pass before they stopped giving bloggers press passes
--a couple of game-used bats, including Bob Fick and Freddie Bynum
--more autographed balls than it's possible to count
--our rec room walls are covered with pictures that my wife took and gets autographed, and she has dozens of other binders full of them
i'm sure that's just half of it. how old am i?
Another thing to add is actually one of my favorites but I keep it in a separate place from my other swag - a Nationals tree ornament one of my colleagues gave me when I left the paper. It is, obviously, packed with the Christmas stuff.
Added a t-shirt for the two of us last night (one of those opening series things) but that's it for the season. I swear. Honest.
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