The Story Behind a Fan’s Amazing Collection: ‘I Chose the Royals’
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Despite living in the middle of Cardinals country and growing up a Cards fan, Don Boes has been a die-hard Royals fan nearly all of his adult life — or almost as long as the Royals have existed.
Boes grew up in Linn, Missouri, a small town located just 90 miles southeast of Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Despite growing up a Cardinals and Yankees fan (the interest in the Yankees stemmed from Mickey Mantle), Boes would later become more of a Kansas City Royals fan following his time at Central Missouri State College — now the University of Central Missouri — between fall 1966 and spring 1970 in Warrensburg, Missouri.
Don Boes poses for a photo by the Columbia Missourian newspaper in June 2015, when they featured his extensive Kansas City Royals’ collection. (Courtesy/Don Boes)
A lot happened for Kansas City baseball in those four short years. In 1968, Charles Finley moved the Athletics franchise to Oakland from Kansas City, despite residents approving the construction of a new baseball stadium. After Finley made the announcement in 1966, former U.S. Senator Stuart Symington, threatened Major League Baseball with enacting anti-trust policies. As a result, MLB granted Kansas City (along with San Diego, Montreal and Seattle) an expansion baseball team to fill the Athletics’ hole.
The Kansas City Royals were born out of this expansion, along with the San Diego Padres, Montreal Expos (now Washington Nationals) and short-lived Seattle Pilots (which later moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers.) The Royals played their first game at the end of Boes’ junior year in April 1969. Boes would not become a Royals fan until later in the 1970s after he graduated and moved to Jefferson City, when area Cardinals fans gave him an ultimatum: He could either love the Royals or the Cardinals, but not both.
“(The) Reason I went 100% Royals was because friends of mine just thought you had to have one favorite team,” Boes said. “You couldn’t have two, even though they were two different leagues. I just kept defending my position and they were relentless. … I started following one all the time. I chose the Royals.”
Boes would attend games throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including games at the 1980 World Series, before getting full-season tickets in 1985. As luck would have it, the Royals would end up in the World Series that year, facing the team he followed as a child — the Cardinals. He later scaled back to 40-game tickets.
He said he got to see all four games played at Royals Stadium behind home plate, and one of the three games played in St. Louis. Even throughout the rough decades that followed the 1985 championship, including the dismal 2000s seasons, Boes maintained his loyalty to the Royals.
“It didn’t matter if my team was winning or losing,” Boes said. “I liked going to the games, I liked baseball, it was entertaining to me. … I’m not a fair-weather fan; I don’t just go when my team is doing good. I just like going to games.”
The Royals made a comeback in the early-to-mid 2010s, with back-to-back World Series appearances in 2014-15. Just like before, in 1980 and 1985, Boes was there to cheer on the team. He attended all of the games played at Kauffman Stadium in the 2014 and 2015 postseasons, including the infamous 2014 Wild Card game that cemented the Royals’ spot in the 2014 postseason.
Don Boes, left, poses for a photo with his son, Dan, during a 2014 playoff game Oct. 5, 2014, at Kauffman Stadium. (Courtesy/Don Boes)
Boes was a regular visitor to the Royals Caravan when it visited the Missouri State Capitol. Thanks to former Sen. Harry Wiggins, he was able to have a one-on-one meeting with former Royals star George Brett.
The collection
While the Royals had their challenges throughout the 2000s, they stepped up their game in one area: merchandising and stadium giveaways (SGAs). Over the years, Boes accrued many of the items they handed out to fans at the stadium.
Boes said when the Royals started giving out bobbleheads at the games, he tried to specifically go to the bobblehead games. Over time, his collection continued to grow. Boes’ wasn’t a stranger to collecting baseball memorabilia: He had collected baseball cards as a child, although he no longer collects cards.
At the peak of his collection, it spanned two rooms in his basement. The collection wasn’t limited to SGAs and bobbleheads. He had many T-shirts from T-shirt Tuesdays, cups he collected from the games, towels and much more. At one point, Boes had more than 150 SGA t-shirts. He also has everything from buttons to “Starting Lineup” figurines of his favorite Royals to growth posters and more.
A photo of Don Boes’ extensive Kansas City Royals collection taken before he sold a majority to a fellow collector in fall 2021. (Courtesy/Don Boes)
Don Boes accumulated many T-shirts over his years of attending games, especially “T-shirt Tuesday” games. (Garrett Fuller)
Like many older collectors, Boes had a section dedicated to George Brett.
“If I saw something with George (Brett), I just kind of wanted it,” he said.
A photo of Don Boes’ “Brett corner” — a section of his collection dedicated to legendary third-baseman George Brett, who played for the Royals from 1973-93. (Courtesy/Don Boes)
His favorite item in his collection is a Bradford Exchange replica of the 2015 World Series trophy. Another favorite was a personalized baseball bat with his and his son’s name on it. As for SGAs, he said his favorite was the George Brett replica statue given out Sept. 26, 2009.
Don Boes said his favorite item in his collection is a Bradford Exchange replica of the 2015 World Series championship trophy, which also included the final scores of all the games. (Courtesy/Don Boes)
A close second favorite, Don Boes said the second favorite item in his collection is a customized Louisville Slugger bat featuring him and his son’s name. He purchased the bat during the 2012 All-Star Game, which was held at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City for the first time since 1973. (Courtesy/Don Boes)
Because of his increasing age and lack of interest in the collection by family members, Boes started selling chunks of his collection to other collectors. He sold his entire SGA collection in fall 2021 to another collector in Kansas City. Despite being in the hobby for years and collecting a wide variety of stuff, he feels it’s time to let some go.
“Even though (my wife) didn’t want me to (sell the collection) because it’s my hobby, I was content on doing it,” Boes said. “I was OK with doing it and I have, and I did the right thing.”
Despite selling his collection, Boes continues to display his love for the Royals — even from across the state in an area dominated by Cardinals fans. Over the years, he and his collection have been featured in local newspapers and interviews with TV stations.
Boes may have sold a majority of his collection, but his love for the Kansas City Royals continues.
