Goodbye To My Home

 Over the last few months, SDCCU/Qualcomm/Jack Murphy Stadium has be gradually disassembled. San Diego State is building a new stadium at the site along with support buildings for the university.

The Noble Florida Panther

A few days ago, I posted that I bought a jersey through NHL Auctions and Fanatics. It arrived yesterday.

 

NHL Auctions

 I haven't written anything in months. Google changed the interface while I was hiatus. 

Hello everyone. I hope you're doing well. I'm alright but I miss going to Ross and Burlington Coat Factory. I believe they are open in my area but I'm not making unnecessary trips at this time.

The NHL playoffs are going on right now. I visited NHL.com and found this:

Link here. 

There's a mix of authentic and premier jerseys for sale. It isn't an auction. Everything listed is buy now. 

I bought a jersey and I'll be receiving it during the middle of a heat wave. I'll write another post when it arrives.

How much would you spend on an authentic Super Bowl ring?

I came across a link a few days ago. Fanatics is auctioning off Robert Kraft's Super Bowl LI Ring for charity. There's about six days left as of this post being put up and the highest bid is over $1 million.

Robert Kraft is probably the highest bidder.

My Reggie Bush Swap Meet Jersey

This really should have been the first post I wrote on here. I was buying so many things and posting them and I never had the chance. This jersey was a good find and a lucky one.

Wrestlemania 36 Merchandise

Last weekend was Wrestlemania. Before the world changed, Wrestlemania was going to be in Tampa Bay at Raymond James Stadium, home of the Tampa Bay Bucs. The stay at home orders changed that and the WWE decided to run the event without fans at their training facility in Orlando. The WWE taped the event ahead of time and split it in two separate days. I watched it and they were fun shows for the most part and a much need distraction. The WWE made merchandise for the event and for me, it's tempting to buy.

Rams

I have a handful of shirts and jerseys that I can write about. I bought this Los Angeles Rams shirt about a month ago and wasn't going to do a post on it but the Rams changed their logo last week. There's been a lot of backlash against it.

NFL Coronavirus Relief Auctions

NFL Auctions are having different items auctioned off to raise money for Coronavirus Relief efforts. 

There are jerseys, footballs, helmets, and more that are being auctioned.

Championship Shirts

On a serious note before I begin, because of the virus going around, I'm not working as much, therefore not bring anymore income. My current job involves me working events and a lot of events at my job have been postponed. Also, I'm not going to go Burlington, Ross, or anywhere else to keep my contact with people to a minimum. I think I still have a few left in my closet to write about.

I never dreamed I would live in a world were store shelves would be bare, the sports world would stop, and Disneyland would shut down. These are some strange times. 

Let Me Tell You About The Maple Leafs Last Night

Yesterday the Carolina Hurricanes played the Toronto Maple Leafs. James Reimer started for the Canes in net and went down with an injury. His backup Petr Mrazek replaced him and went out to play the puck and got crushed by Kyle Clifford. At every NHL game, there's an emergency goalie in case one team's goalies go down.

Enter 42 year old David Ayres.

David hasn't played any level of professional hockey. He played in the lower junior league a long time ago. He's practiced with the Toronto Marlies and Leafs. He's also the Zamboni drive for the Marlies.

The Leafs are down 4-2 when he comes in. Everyone watching the game thinks it's over. The first two shots on Ayres go in. The Hurricanes tighten up their defense and Ayres doesn't let another puck into the back of the net. The Hurricanes end up winning 6-4. Ayres gets his first NHL win and is the oldest player to do so. 

The Hurricanes are selling shirts with his name and number on it. I might get a jersey instead because history doesn't happen every day.

 

Carolina Panthers Literal Yard Sale.

Ron Rivera or Riverboat Ron, was the head coach of the Carolina Panthers for eight seasons. He was fired by the team after a slow start last season and is now the head coach in Washington. After eight seasons, you accumulate lots of stuff and he probably doesn't want to take it with him to Washington. He's having a yard sale tomorrow (Saturday). More info here and here.

Pirates Therma Base Jacket

With the Super Bowl coming up, I went to TJ Maxx, Burlington Coat Factory, and Ross, looking for 49'ers or Chiefs merchandise. I found a few 49'ers sweatshirts at TJ Maxx and that was it. 

On a last-minute venture, I decided to go to Marshalls, looking for anything related to the Big Game. Didn't find anything thing related to it but found something else rare.

RIP

Padres Fanfest 2019 Or How I Waited In Line Most Of The Day

Crowded...

I arrived at Petco Park a little bit after 10AM. Doors opened to the general public at 10AM. As I got closer, I saw the hundreds of people waiting in line to get in and I saw the players' parking lot where the garage sale was taking place. The jersey section was crowded.

It was a bit shocking as I've not had to wait to get in previous years. After waiting about five minutes, I couldn't get my ticket up on MLB Ballpark app. The security guard let me in. As soon as I got in, I waited in the garage sale line. They were letting people in about ten at a time. I might have waited another five minutes to get in.

After I got in, I waited in line to get to the game issued jerseys. This is what I saw while I waited.

A small section on the garage was dedicated to it and I was surprised so many people were into old jerseys. As the Padres changed from navy blue to brown and gold, I figured fans would be interested in the new jerseys. I got in and they had the racks separated by home, away, alternate, blank jerseys, signed jerseys, and more.

 Each rack had these on them and I should have taken pictures of all them because it would have come in useful later. In the back of my mind, I had a list of people I wanted and I only ended up with two jerseys I wanted and third one that was kind of interesting to me.

I must have spent about thirty minutes looking through the jerseys as people were doing the same thing. There were shoppers on the phone calling friends asking them what size they were. I need to hire a personal shopper to do this for me.

I found this jersey and almost bought it.

 They had a replica Brian Giles on the rack. I can tell because it doesn't have authentic tag on it and says merchandise.

I grabbed my three jerseys and went around to the different tables with merchandise.

 They had yearbooks, caps, pants, batting helmets, socks, catcher's gear, and All Star decorations on sale. One fan walked away with an All Star Game sign for $100. It was nice but I couldn't think of a place to put it.

I grabbed an All Star Game yearbook and a banner (where I don't know where to put it) and waited in line.

This line moved fast and saw fans leaving with boxes full of stuff. One customer left with a dozen blue hats.

Checking out was a problem because the cashier had trouble discerning what to charge me.  She had a sheet in front of her with about ten different jersey styles on them but mine were hard to find on them. If I took pictures of where I got them, I would have known how much they were. She was like I'll charge you this for the jersey for it and I was like at least it's less than a $100. I really know how to haggle. I paid $166 for three jerseys, a banner, and a yearbook. I have no idea if it was the right amount. They could have had color coded tags on all jerseys to make it easier to check out.

I left and made it on to the field, where it was packed. Fans were in the home dugout taking pictures, people were playing in the outfield, and I was trying to figure out what to do next. By the time I left garage sale, about an hour and a half passed. 

I walked around the park and it was crowded. I decided to go to the team store to see if they were having a half off sale or having all the navy-blue items on sale. They weren't (more on that later).

Walked around more and saw that Mark Grant and Don Orsillo, the TV announcers for the Padres, were signing autographs and got their autographs. This was awesome because I really wanted it and it was free and the line was short for it.

 Right over where they were, was the team store sale where everything was half off. I decided to go because I didn't spend enough during the event. I had to wait online to get in but they had plenty of shirts and hats available. I bought a hat and left shortly after because of I was tired of all the walking and waiting.


What did I buy?

Kazuhisa Makita played one season for the Padres in 2018. He's still in the farm system with them, so he could be on the team this upcoming season. I wanted this jersey.

Erick Aybar was known for being an Angel but spent his last season in the majors with the Padres. Someone asked me if was a Padre and I told him yes. I wanted this jersey too. It was from the 2017 Memorial Day game against the Cubs.

Jorge Cantú also played his last season in majors with the Padres. I know him more as a Marlin because I used to play against them a lot in MLB 2K8. Someone also asked me if he played as Padre I said yes as I started Googling. Turns out I was right.

Lastly, I wanted this last year and couldn't find it when it left my sight. Luckily, they had plenty of them this year.

I have a Jered Weaver jersey and wanted to add the banner to my collection. They had plenty of banners of different players and I really like former Angels.

I bought my first brown hat.

Paid $18 on sale for it. Funny story, it had a shoplifting sensor on it. They couldn't remove it. I had to go to the permanent team store and after a couple of attempts they got the sensor off.

So I had fun. I didn't buy as much as I used to because other people beat me to it. I was thinking about going to Angels Moving Day but they aren't having it this year. 

Padres Fanfest Eve

Padres Fanfest is tomorrow. Here are the previous year's posts about them.

https://sportsfinds.blogspot.com/2016/03/padres-fanfest-2014.html

https://sportsfinds.blogspot.com/2016/04/padres-fanfest-2016.html

https://sportsfinds.blogspot.com/2017/04/padres-fanfest-philip-humber-where-art.html

https://sportsfinds.blogspot.com/2019/01/padres-fanfest-2019-part-one-experience.html 

https://sportsfinds.blogspot.com/2019/01/padres-fanfest-2019-part-two-merchandise.html


Depending on what time I get back, I might have a post about it on Saturday.
Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/sportsfinds/) will be updated during the event.