2007 Multi Ad Sports, Omaha Royals

#4 Brian Bannister
#14 Shane Costa
#20 Mike Jirschele
#26 Neal Musser

At Royals Fanfest in 2009, the Omaha Royals had a booth set up. They had a bunch of freebies sitting on their table, including random cards from this 2007 team set. Neal Musser and Shane Costa were both at Fanfest that year and, since I only had one card of each, I made sure to grab their cards. I also grabbed the Bannister and the Jirschele. I am not really sure why I grabbed the Jirschele. It was probably because he was the AAA manager and he usually gets called up to the big leagues after the AAA season is over. Either way, I grabbed four cards and I was able to get all four signed in 2009. I got Costa and Musser at Fanfest, Bannister at the Royals Caravan, and Jirschele after an O-Royals game in Des Moines.

I really like this set. Though the photography needs some help to make it look less "foggy", the layout is really good. I love the way the bat is used for the name, position, and team. The fact that it is a black bat makes it even better. Multi Ad did a good job with adding the gold ring on the bat that matches the font color.

Out of all of these guys, Jirschele is the only one that is still in baseball. Musser and Bannister have not pitched since 2010 and Costa last played in 2012. Jirschele is currently the third base coach for the Royals.

This is the last card of Shane Costa that I have to post on here. You can see his first one here and the second one here. There will be one more Neal Musser, a couple more Mike Jirscheles, and quite a few more Bannisters.

1990 CMC, Bill Pecota

#191 Bill Pecota

Here is another Bill Pecota card from this years Fanfest. There are still a couple more cards of Bill to come, but this is the last one that has him as a Royal.

I have eighteen cards signed from this CMC set and this is the first one of an Omaha Royal. Omaha has been the Royals AAA team since the teams inception in 1969. They remained true to the Royals moniker until they changed their names to the Golden Spikes in 1999. The Spikes name lasted all of three years before they returned to the O-Royals in 2002. They stayed as the Royals through the 2010 season. In 2011, they moved out of Rosenblatt Stadium to a brand new Werner Park in Sarpy County. With the new park came a new name as they are now the Omaha Storm Chasers. This time, the new name has stuck. They are still affiliated with the Royals and they have won the last two Pacific Coast League Championships and last seasons AAA Championship.

I was a little surprised when the club changed their name, but I guess I should not have been. Very few AAA teams carry their parent clubs nickname anymore. This year, their are only three teams still doing it- the Cubs, Red Sox, and Braves. It makes sense to have a different name. It is nice to have the chance to brand your own product and even name the team after something that pertains to the city or region. But, the better reason is that teams change affiliation so often now, it is beneficial to not have to change your nickname every four or five years.