I start where most players do - in the minor leagues.
The left most and center cup are from Orioles farm teams: The Frederick Keys and the Bowie Baysox, A Carolina League and AA respectively. Both are from the summer of 2008 when I was living in Baltimore and able to attend four different minor league games, an couple of Orioles games, and a couple of Nationals games. The right most cup is from the Greensboro Grasshoppers. I was a big fan of their logo which is part of the reason I kept this cup. They are in the same A league as the Keys, but much further South. I attended their game in 2007 when I got to see a whole slew of minor league teams around the Chapel Hill area.
Next, onto my baseball team, the Mets.
The first two cups are from Shea and the right most cup is from Citi Field. Now, I would have kept more Mets cups, but for some reason the tops always start falling apart. I'm not sure if that is because I use them more than my other cups, or just because they tend to mimic the team whose logo they bear. Anyway, the center cup is from the final year at Shea. It was a heart-breaker, but I was there at the final game to see it in person. The right most cup is from the first year at Citi Field. It is interesting for a couple reasons. First, it is the smallest souvenir stadium cup I have ever seen. I was kind of pissed because it seemed to me that I was getting jipped out of soda despite the fact that it is so much cheaper than the cup itself. However, on the bright side this cup has held up a lot better than the previous souvenir cups, so that has tempered my anger over time. It is also interesting because that year the Mets had different souvenir cups throughout the season. This was the first in the series. I kind of liked that idea, because as a Met fan who attended a bunch of games throughout the year I was kind of tired of getting the same design cup at every game I attended. Unfortunately, that was also the year I moved out to Chicago so I did not get any of the other designs. I have also found that many of the food stands at Citi do not carry the souvenir cups, which is strange.
Next, here are the cups from after the purge. These are all from my 2010 baseball road trip with Q, chronicled here.
The left most cup will look familiar to those who read Thorzul's original post. It is from a Brewers game, the first stop on the trip. The second is a White Sox cup. I was kind of disappointed by the design on this one. The third is from the Twins' new stadium Target Field. The right most cup depicts Fred Bird, the Cardinals mascot.
Finally, here are two of my other favorite cups from over the years that I saved from the purge.
The first is from an Atlanta Braves game. That was from 2007, and is probably the furthest I have ever driven for a single game (not part of a road trip). The second cup is by far my favorite: a Red Sox cup from a 2006 game when I sat in the Green Monster seats. Now the seats enough could have won this cup a spot in my cabinet, but the graphic on the cup actually uses the same effect as a Topps 2020 insert card. It is kind of cool, and also surprising that a team would spend the extra money to embellish a cup that people would buy no matter how cheap it was to make - see the White Sox cup above. I also do not remember it being priced much higher than other souvenir sodas, but I could have just forgotten.
Well, thanks for reading and if you are still with me, then I would like to reward you with a heads up. I am going to post my first ever contest on February 15th, the day the Mets' pitchers and catchers report. It will be easy to enter and the prize will be a small set of relatively unique cards. The rest you will have to wait until the 16th to find out!
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