Archive for the ‘Irving Falu’ Tag
A huge congratulations is in order for longtime Royals minor leaguer Irving Falu on finally getting to the major league team. He made his Kansas City Royals and Major League debut on May 6, 2012 and got a triple in his first career at bat. I was pulling for Falu to be the Royals utility man in spring training but the team had signed veteran Yuniesky Betancourt to fill that roll. An injury to Betancourt allowed Falu the big opportunity and he made the most of it.
At A Hair Off Square that means a major league debut card, I have often called it my favorite set and it is still true. I love the card design and how exclusive the players on the cards are. Here is Irving Falu’s card.

Irving Falu has spent a few years “one call away” now for the Kansas City Royals. He will likely never be a starting shortstop or second baseman in the big leagues over a long stretch but has the potential to be an excellent utility man. The Royals signed Yuniesky Betancourt over the offseason to fill that role so it looks like once again Falu will remain “one call away.” I am not a Yuni fan (like most Royals fans) so I hope Falu finds his way to the majors in 2012. I think he is a more adequate backup for the infield positions than Yuni defensively and that is typically what you want in a utility guy, not offense. 

I whipped up this design a couple weeks ago for a local professional team named the St. Joe Mustangs and really enjoyed the design. I liked it so much that I decided I had to figure out a way to do something with the Royals in this design. I combined this design with an idea I had for my “2011 Just Fair” set. I thought about making a special parallel/short print type variation with a different picture of the player and their Major League debut on the front of the card. I saw the black line at the bottom of this card and the puzzle pieces really fell right into place.
So I made the set. The set consisted of 6 cards until tonight (Eric Hosmer, Danny Duffy, Everett Teaford, Louis Coleman, Tim Collins and Aaron Crow) and those cards will get posted soon. I decided that the next player to make his Major League debut for the Kansas City Royals would be the launch of this little subset I came up with. It just so happened that it was Mike Moustakas.
For the record Moustakas went 1-3 with a broken bat single(Nick Scott reference not intended) and a walk and run. I predicted 1-3 with a double and a walk and a strikeout with an RBI. I was close.
This is an idea I am proud of and think I would like to continue, possibly for years. I would reserve these cards for only those who made their Major League debut for the Royals from now on. For instance, Lorenzo Cain would not fit in the set because he has logged time with the Brewers. If someone like Iriving Falu would happen to get called up to spell Alcides Escobar, he would get a card in this set. Over the next couple weeks I will occasionally slip one of these cards in as my Custom Card of the Day.