Royals fans, on their second postseason, are looking for odd and creative buys

Diana Cervantes and her daughter Michelle Espinoza appeared already laden in Royals merchandise, poised at the center of the Royals Team Store.

Their darting eyes, however, revealed them as fans still on the prowl.

“We’re getting stuff we haven’t gotten before,” Cervantes, of Kansas City, said while shopping Friday.

That could be a challenge for many Royals fans who are just a year removed from going all in on the team’s surprising playoff run a year ago, which broke a generational drought.

Glassware, plush booties, Sluggerrr as a bearded gnome, the baserunning mustard and relish hot dog dolls — these would certainly qualify as things not bought before.

Ah, but Cervantes spied the next thing: A KC Royals World Series “woven tapestry throw” blanket.

Those autumn games “get really chilly,” she said.

Mark Pridgen, shopping with Nita Greene — both of Gladstone — had a similar wish to fend off October chill in style.

He was also looking for something out of the ordinary. He got that with a Royals magnet for his Harley Davidson motorcycle.

And Greene was looking for her own stylings, saying, “I want cute.”

But now the order of business was to update the slick blue coat of Pridgen’s with the crest saying World Series 2014.

You can tell fans learned their lessons about fall baseball a year ago, said Brett Salzenstein, the director of merchandise at the store at Kauffman Stadium.

“Anything for cold weather is selling big,” he said. “They learned last year to get things to last for winter.”

This season seems to be good for higher end clothing, he said, as if many Royals fans want to build on last year’s revelry more elegantly.

Ryan Studer of Lee’s Summit was back in shopping mode, although he’d already made his dramatic purchase of the playoff season.

He’d been at the intense Game Six of the American League Championship Series, awash in the joy of beating the Toronto Blue Jays when store personnel brought up actual bases that had just been used in the game.

He got third base for $800. Not discretionary funds, he said. On a whim.

“But it was a special game,” he said.

And, depending on just how special things get in 2015, memorabilia stores like the Kauffman shop may get another rush of consumerism.

Cathy Zeigler of Kansas City, seeking out her own memorabilia niche, has been collecting shot glasses. She has glasses commemorating the playoffs a year ago, and the World Series. And she had a 2015 World Series shot glass in her hands to add to the collection.

“I plan to come back,” she said, “when they have one that says ‘champions.’ ”

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 5:49 PM with the headline "Royals fans, on their second postseason, are looking for odd and creative buys."