Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Player 00

I'm guessing many of you are on the Yankees Shop email list, and recieved the same email shown above this morning. In light of the most recent A-Rod scandal, that jersey actually seems pretty appealing.

I don't have an authentic Yankee jersey. Before last season, I very nearly bought some Robinson Cano road threads on eBay for $90, but decided to pass at the last moment. Pretty happy about that decision, seeing that he only posted an 86 OPS+ in 2008.

During the apology contained in his interview with Peter Gammons last night A-Rod said he had "millions of fans". I've got to assume that pretty much all of them are under the age of 7, and don't immediately realize that he's not all that likeable even when he's not admitting to doing steroids.

If you have a kid with an A-Rod jersey, what do you do? Do you let them wear it because despite the fact that he made a mistake, he ultimately told the truth? Or does the fact that he cheated remove him as a role model for your kids? There's no easy answer. I'm glad I don't have to make that call.

The great thing about the jersey above is that there is no risk involed. Fictional "Player 00" is never going to embarass you with their terrible performance, PED usage or off-the-field antics. You can still show your love for the team without hitching your wagon to any of the flawed human beings wearing your team's colors. Like Jerry Seinfeld said, we are just rooting for laundry.

4 comments:

  1. remember when MJ was "Player 23" back in the day in NBA Live because the games didn't have the rights to use his name?

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  2. Yeah, Shaq refused to be party of the licensing agreement as well. That's why he was only in the arcade version of NBA Jam.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Jam

    In MLK2K6 Barry Bonds was replaced by a right-handed white guy named J. Dowd because he's not part of the MLB agreement. I'm guessing it was a subtle joke by one of their programmers pointing to John Dowd because of his investigation into Pete Rose and figuring that Bonds would be under investigation at some point as well.

    http://bbs.buccaneers.com/showthread.php?t=118380

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  3. Why not put your last name on the back?

    I remember from my BC days when I was sitting in in the Fenway center field bleachers when some Yankees fan stupidly wore a pinstriped jersey with his last name "Mercurio" on the back. The guy was pretty obnoxious--among other things he was smoking butts in the middle of the bleachers and kept yelling stuff at Sawx fans (When I myself am at the Pahk I always flaunt my Bernie jersey and cheer if the Yanks get a big hit or make a good play in the field--however, this was beyond tolerable even for myself as a Yankees fan). So the guy "Mercurio"--#5--starts getting heckled by Sawx fans whens the Sawx pull ahead (a short lived lead for the Olde Towne Team). When the Yanks reclaim the lead, he then decides to confront one of the Sawx fans and sucker punches the guy. "Mercurio," at the urging of one of his friend then decides to leave his seating area before the police come and escort him out of Fenway/arrest him. I'm obviously unsure if he was ever arrested, but would not be surprised if the sucker-punched Sawx fan found the guy and instituted an assault claim against him.

    Moral of this horrible story: If you are "cool" enough to get your last name emblazoned on the back of your favorite team's jersey, you should probably not act like an asshole and should enjoy a game lawfully.

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