Archive for the ‘John Wathan’ Tag
This is the jewel of my collection. As a Royals fan it is hard to image one single item being much more cool than this. I’m up to 17 autographs by the championship team on this cover from when they won it all in 1985. The most recent additions were Danny Jackson and Darryl Motley. Before that it was Frank White and Hal McRae that got added to the mix.
I struck gold when I picked this up at an estate sale a couple years ago already having several of the really hard to find Royals players on it… like George Brett, Bret Saberhagen and Steve Balboni. Sadly the one signature it will never have is Dan Quisenberry. The two most notable names missing now are Mark Gubicza and Jim Sundberg. I guess I really need the Angels and Rangers to come to KC to pick those up. Enjoy!

Autographed 1985 Royals championship Sports Illustrated: Here is a rough guide from left to right, top to bottom of signatures: Willie Wilson, Greg Pryor, Steve Balboni, George Brett, Jamie Quirk, John Wathan, Dick Howser, Buddy Biancalana, Darryl Motley, Charlie Leibrandt, Dennis Leonard, Bud Black, Bret Saberhagen, Hal McRae, Danny Jackson, Mike Jones, Frank White

Kansas City Royals placemat; left to right; John Wathan, Dennis Leonard, Fred Patek, Amos Otis, UL Washington, Joe Zdeb, Al Hrabosky
So here is the first two placemats of the second and final series released. You can see that these are a little different visually. The big Royals crown is featured instead of simply the script “Royals” being the centerpiece. Once again these are by the same artist John Boyd Martin. This set’s pictures are also noticeably different. 3 of the 7 pictures on each placemat are headshots. This makes them clearly distinguishable from the first series of mats. Once again it was a set of four and the first two are here, I will post the final two tomorrow.

Kansas City Royals placemat; left to right; Rich Gale, Jamie Quirk, Clint Hurdle, Whitey Herzog, Frank White, Al Cowens, Steve Mingori

Kansas City Royals placemat: left to right: Steve Busby, UL Washington, Joe LaHoud, Larry Gura, John Wathan, Pete LaCock, George Brett
There are a couple things I failed to mention on my first post. First of all the measurements of these placemats are 17″ x 10 7/8″. They are coated with a nice thick matte laminate, this has really helped the condition of these to last over 30 years. The first mat I posted had 6 players but the other 7, including this one will have 7 players on each. This first set is all action shots, the next set is a little different which I will be posting in a couple days.