Fan Packing Across the USA - El Paso Diablos

I have some good memories going to Diablos games. My father was stationed at Fort Bliss for 5 years back in the mid to late 80's.  We use to go to 2 or 3 Diablos games a year.  Back then the Diablos were a Brewers farm team.  A lot of the give aways had Brewers logos on them. And I got to see quite a few guys who would eventually make it up to the bigs.  Now the Diablos are part of the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball League.  Meaning they are a farm for no one.

I sent the Diablos an email a few weeks ago asking if they did fan packs and a couple of days ago I got an envelope in the mail with a couple goodies inside.

A cool magnet schedule and of course....

pocket schedules!!!

I was happy to get anything at all from the team. Minor league teams are always hit or miss with fan packs.
So thanks to the Diablos organization.

Fan Packin' Across the USA - Battle of the M's - Minnesota Twins vs the Seattle Mariners

Got two more fan pack in the mail a few days ago. Let's put them head to head and see what happens.

We'll start big this time.

First we have two press releases. One with the opening day roster and an announcement about the Hrbek statue.

There were also two 8.5 x 11 computer printed photos.  A team photo and an opening day photo from last year.  There was also a piece of cardboard with these so keep them from getting bent.  Very classy.

Of course what would a fan pack be with out a pocket schedule.....

and a couple stickers?

There were also three player postcards.  Each one has a thank you on the back from the player featured.

Not too shabby there Twins.  OK lets see what the Mariners have.  I have a soft spot for the Mariners. I spent 3 years as a kid north of Seattle and living up here in Alaska the local ESPN radio station plays all the Mariners games.

First we have a games sheet here's what the outside looks like.  A nice sunny day in Seattle at Safeco.

Here's whats inside the trifold. Baseball Sudoku!!!

A nice sheet of stickers.

And of course a pocket schedule.

And a bi fold sheet with Ichiro on the front and 3 player cards on the other side!

Nice.

I'm going to have to call this one a draw.  The Twins had a few more things, but the Mariners really packed their little envelope full of goodness.  Both had stickers, player cards, pocket schedules and something else.
Our first tie of the season.

Fan Packin' Across the USA - Battle Royal! The Dodgers vs the Cubs vs the Braves!

I got three fan packs in the mail in the last couple of days.  The Braves, Dodgers, and Cubs all came back to back to back, so lets throw them all in the ring and see who comes out the winner.

Lets have a look at all the envelopes.

Wow that Dodger envelope is huge!  Ok lets see what we've got.  Will start small and work our way up.

First we have the thank you letter from the Braves.

Just like the Red Sox the Braves include a small bag of dirt.

There was also a 2012 Pocket Schedule, not folded.  Featuring Timmy Hudson.

Photo of opening day.

And a great big Braves sticker.  Not too bad for just a #10 envelope.

OK next up the Cubs fan pack.

First we have a nice little note card, that had it's own envelope.

Nice a personalized thank you note.  Very classy Cubs, very classy.

The Cubs included a 2012 All Star ballot.  Hmmm hoping to stuff the box eh Cubbies?

There was also a Wrigley Field Tours brochure.

The 2012 Cubs Pocket Schedule.  Hey that guy use to be a Brewer, and I just got him TTM too.  That's  manager Dale Sveum. I did a quick search and there are actually 4 different Cubs pocket schedules. I'm sure there are multiple versions of lots of teams this year, but I'm not going to look them all up.

A nice Cubs sticker, and...

And a 2012 Fridge Schedule magnet! I love fridge magnets.
I'll be honest last year's fan pack was a lot better. It had a foam ball, wrist sweatband and some player postcards, but still a nice fan pack.

All right lets see what was in that big envelope from the Dodgers.

No thank you letter but a copy of Line Drives newsletter from December of last year.

Also a Dodger Playbill from September of last year.  Hey that picture looks familiar.

The Dodgers 2012 Pocket Schedule featuring manager Don Mattingly. I know that there is also another pocket schedule featuring Matt Kemp.

A player postcard of Clayton Kershaw.
Here's the back

And....

yep another fridge magnet!!!

So who won? Man this one's tough.  I mean I love fridge magnets, but the Braves sent dirt! And both the Braves and Cubbies sent stickers, but the Dodgers sent a player postcard of Kershaw, man if one of these teams had sent me a pencil it would be all over.  I'm going to have to go with the Dodgers on this one, but it was a close one.

CB out.

Fan Packin' Across the USA - Cincinnati Reds

Like I mentioned last post I got a fan pack with my Nyjer Morgan TTM success. And it's the Reds!.  It came in a huge envelope and had quite a bit of stuff in it. So lets see what the oldest team in baseball sends out in it's fan packs.

First we have the thank you letter.  Even dated for this month nice!

Next is a big autograph sheet. A least that's what I think it is. I mean that's what the white bar is for below the players.  And it's 8.5x11.

Of course we get a 2012 pocket schedule featuring Jay Bruce.

There is this free Special Preview Edition of a Kids book.  I haven't read it, but I'll put it in the pile for my unborn children.

Next we have a sticker of Gapper. I have mustache envy now.

And last we have a huge wall poster.  Can you guess which of the 4 players featured this one was.  Yep it was Josh Hamilton.  Just kidding it was Votto.  It's so big it doesn't fit on the scanner and I didn't take a photo of it but it looks just like the preview.


Not a bad little fan pack from the Reds.  And currently they're in second place in the NL Central two and a half games behind the Cards.  Thanks Reds organization!

Fan Packing Across the USA - San Fransico Giants

Since I started requesting fan packs a few years ago there are a few teams I added to my don't even bother with list.  They consisted of San Diego Padres and the Philadelphia Phillies.  Well I guess I get to add one more to my list with the Giants.  Don't get me wrong I'm glad I got a response from my email, but sending me a PDF with three pages and calling it a fan pack is pretty lame.  I'd much rather you just go the Phillies route and tell me to screw off.  Because honestly this is a little embaressing.

So I emailed almost all the Major League teams back in early April, expect for the ones that I know require you send a postcard, or are on my do not bother with list, see above.

On the 3rd of May I got this response from the Giants.

Thank you for writing. Your new 2012 Fan Pack is attached!!! Go Giants!


That's right three exclamation points for this fan pack.  Lets see what's so exciting.

The PDF actually was in color and some how I lost it when I converted the pages to JPG's, but I got a nice letter telling me how to write to players, a coloring book page and a team game schedule.

This is pretty much exactly what the Padres send you as well.

Oh well.  Thanks Giants for at least responding to my email I sent over a month ago.  They can't all be winners.

Fan Packing across the USA - Royals vs. Orioles

Yep going to do another heads up.  Probably not fair, but life ain't fair.
I got fan packs from the Royals and Orioles pretty much back to back days so lets see what we have inside.
First up the Kansas City Royals

A nice form letter from the front office.  The Kansas City Royals lettering up top is gold foil. Very classy.

There was also a K Crew temporary tattoo. 

A 2012 Royals schedule, featuring Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, and Alex Gordon.

And an application for the Sluggerrr's Blue Crew Kids Fan Club.

Kind of lackluster, lets see what the Orioles sent

Another front office form letter. Not very wordy.

Two, yep two more 2012 team schedules

A flyer for Camden Yards tours.

Here's the back

A couple of stickers.  And these stickers are big. Very nice.

And a player card of Wilson Betemit.  This is larger than the 2x3 regular card size, but smaller than post card size.  And it's even got stuff on the back.

I wasn't familiar with Betemit, so I looked him up online.  He's been in the majors for over 10 years and played for just about everybody.  I kid, but Wilson has played for the Braves, the Dodgers, Yankees, White Sox, Royals, and Tigers before signing with Baltimore this year. Betemit is a utility player being able to cover 1st, 3rd and shortstop and so far this year has played in 21 games and had 18 hits, 4 HR's and 15 RBI's not too shabby.

So I think the winner between this fan pack off is pretty obvious, ahem Orioles.  But thanks to both teams for actually sending me something.