THE ERROR CARD

October 02, 2023

Good evening. This is Dead Legends. I'm sure you're aware of the sad news by now: baseball lost a legend yesterday.

Our thoughts and condolences go out to Tim Wakefield's loved ones.

I consider myself blessed to have had the chance to watch him pitch over the years.

Let’s dive in.

Today’s story is about the most iconic “error card” in baseball history.

Picture this: It’s January of ‘89, and you just got your hands on a fresh pack of baseball cards.

You tear off the wrapping and pull out your favorite player, only to realize that on the knob of the bat, it says: “Fuck Face.”

Yeah, this actually happened.

You’ve probably heard of Fleer, it was founded in 1883, and started as a bubble gum company.

They began selling baseball cards back in 1923 and never looked back.

They’ve produced some legendary cards over the years - the ‘89 Randy Johnson, the ‘59 Ted Williams, and the ‘93 Derek Jeter rookie card.

But nothing caught the attention of the card-collecting world quite like the Billy Ripken FF card.

Here’s what it looked like:

You might have to zoom in a bit, but it’s pretty damn clear.

“Fuck Face” right there in bold black sharpie.

What’s hard to decipher is if this was an honest mistake, or a marketing ploy.

If it was the latter, it was absolutely genius.

Basically what Billy Ripken says is that he wrote the FF on his practice bat so he could quickly identify and grab it amongst all the other bats during BP.

He did not intend to bring that one out for picture day, though.

Fleer claimed it was an oversight on their part.

Apparently, they didn’t notice it because they were rushing to print the new set and get it out the door.

Once they noticed, Fleer put a black box over the knob, and resold it.

It turned into an accidental gold rush.

Everybody wanted to get their hands on this Billy Ripken card.

At the time, they were selling for about $500 each.

These days, you can find listings on eBay for as much as $13,000.

HOMAGE 🤝 MLB

In '07, Ryan Vesler launched Homage out of his parents house.

Over the last 16 years, they’ve gone from the basement to the big leagues.

Tonight they’re kicking off the Post Season with a 20% sale on all their MLB merchandise.

Here’s a little sample platter of what they’ve got to offer:

The MLB Collections:

STRANGE NAMES

If you're just joining us, we play this game every day where we try to find the weirdest names throughout baseball history.

Why? Don't ask us, it's just something we like to do.

If you've been rocking with us for awhile now, you know what time it is.

Today's winner is:

Brickyard was a certified baller who pitched for the Brooklyn Superbas during the 1890s.

People also knew him as "Roaring Bill" because of his thunderous voice and his habit of shouting at umpires, batters, and even his own teammates.

His 174 wins over the course of that decade put him fourth, behind only Kid Nichols, Cy Young, and Amos Rusie — all of whom are in the Hall of Fame.

Kennedy threw absolute gas, and was almost unhittable when he was “on,” but he had a bad attitude and absolutely refused to cover first base.

THE DEAD LEGENDS ARCHIVE

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