The most important decisions of our lives- The Shersey

Getting the new shersey, (for those not in the know, shersey is the brilliant portmanteau of shirt and jersey) is an important part of every fan's life. Its t-shirt nature allows us to wear it anytime and any place: to class, to bed, at home, to dinner, to the game. Its jersey side allows to suavely advertise our support for a team, and more importantly a specific player.

Recently in my life, I have decided that for the most part jerseys just don't look that good anywhere except the ballpark, and even then most of the time they look awkward on  average bejerseyed male. (this revelation came at the expense of a bunch of Cubs fans while attending a Dodgers game in the last year)

This is why for me, the shersey has become vitally more important in my fan life. They are considerably less expensive, so I can get one for players I am a big fan of, or that are on my fantasy team, without having to sink a huge amount of money on it. I don't know about anywhere else, but having lived in A's territory for 15 years, sherseys are all the rage and many fans collect as many as possible.

So this is where  I come to the great people of RR, it is time for me to get my first royals shersey. I already own Chase Utley and Jake Peavy sherseys (heros of my fantasy baseball team), so it's time to see what the consensus is.

Lets go to a list of the contenders with a breakdown:

via lp.imageg.net

This is mostly a gag, as before I wrote this, I was perusing all of the Hillman related diaries. I didn't actually believe they would make a manager shersey, but lo and behold! I have never seen anyone in a manager's shersey, and I could do this to set precedent and become the first dude to rock a Hillman shersey.

Bonus Points: Excellent look when rocking a huge facial hair collection.
Minus Points: No one in LA, or basically anywhere outside of KC would really know who it is, and the joke would be lost on 99.9% of people. Someday if im rich I may get one and wear it around and give $500 dollars to the first person that approaches me about it.

via lp.imageg.net

The Soria shersey extolls badassness. Arguably one of the most talented players on the team, and equally effective. It would seemingly send mixed messages. It might cause people to believe that I believe that Soria has the special ability to pitch 9th innings that no one else has. I don't want to lose points among the sabermetrically inclined, but is it my fault he's stuck as a closer?

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The Greinke seems to be the leader in the clubhouse for me at the moment. It is incredibly awesome, Greinke is the ace of the staff and has been extended, and it has that great edge that only a Greinke could provide. I would have no qualms about spending the thirty or so dollars for one of these badboys.

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This one had a lot more potential last week before Gordon was set to miss a good chunk of this season. It still has some long term potential, but I think it would be better off to take a wait and see approach with the Gordon shersey. Now if sherseys were like investments and one could buy low at say 12 dollars that might change my mind, but MLB just doesn't wanna be like that. Oh well.

via lp.imageg.net

I like this shersey a lot, but I feel like it would be very underappreciated. If I lived near KC it would be good because most Royals fans understand how good Meche is, but I think out among the masses, most people wouldn't really know much about Meche other than he got "overpaid" by a "shitty" team. Meche is still pretty badass, but he's probably second in line to Greinke on the Royals KC SP shersey depth chart.

via lp.imageg.net

Another uncertain shersey because its more for future investment than for now. If he never truly pans out, it might suck to have gotten one of these instead of a legitimate Greinke or Meche. The only thing that might save it is if I got it in a XXXL and wore it around to poke fun at Butler. But again, seeing as thats an average joke at best, its most likely to be lost even on Royals fans.


THE BEST OF THE REST:
The only other shersey I might seriously consider would be Dejesus. It would be pretty cool to have as a backup shersey, or maybe if they had more than one design scheme. Otherwise, I think DDJ is just a hair under shersey quality as a player. His other problem is we don't have enough really good guys to create the mediocre guy shersey backlash. This situation is where everyone gets sherseys of all the good players, but so many people have them that its lame to wear the David Oritz or Papelbon shersey. Therefore to remain hip and on the cutting edge, you invest in more fringe and prospect sherseys. Thats how some Red Sox fans might end up with a Lugo or Brandon Moss shersey, or the aforementioned A's fans with a Jack Hanahan or Joey Devine shersey.

Coco Crisp could potentially sneak in as a shersey contender if he sticks around for a few years. Kyle Davies could as well if he blossoms this year. Mark Teahn possibly if you respect his value to our club relative to every other team in baseball.

Or if you are particularly cruel, you could play a prank on your buddy by getting him one of the quadumvirate of Farnsworth, Olivo,Ho-Ram, or TPJ. There are no occasions where these look cool, and I'm not sure that anyone has actually ever ordered one of these. For the sake of baseball, don't ever buy one of these.



NOW TO THE POLLS!