Topps commits a Bieber blunder
Cleveland Indians pitcher Shane Bieber is the ace of the staff for a team that is in the thick of the American League playoff race. Justin Bieber is a wildly successful pop star whom many people with common sense dislike. They are two different people. And Shane Bieber would like for everyone to remember that.
In fact, during “Players Weekend” in 2018, when players were allowed to wear any name on the back of their jersey, Shane Bieber chose “Not Justin” as his name.
This is something the fine folks at the Topps baseball card company might have forgotten.
On Saturday, Bieber (Shane, not Justin) tweeted a picture of the back of one of his Topps baseball cards. On it, it says, “Justin was particularly comfortable [in 2018] on the road, where he went a team-record 7-0.”
Topps responded with a tweet of its own that said, “Is it too late to say sorry?” Which of course is a lyric from the Bieber (Justin, not Shane) song “Sorry.”
A cynic might say that Topps loves this because it could make the Bieber (Shane, not Justin) card more valuable, increasing the company’s sales. Let me respond for Topps: “What do you mean?”
More on the Indians
The Indians were locked in a scoreless game with the Angels on Saturday in Cleveland when, during the fifth inning, Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield was shown on the scoreboard watching the game from a stadium suite. Noticing he was on camera, Mayfield grabbed a beer can, bit into it and drank it as foam sprayed on his face. He then exhorted the crowd to cheer louder while he pointed to the back of the Francisco Lindor jersey he was wearing.
The Indians then scored five fifth-inning runs en route to a 7-2 victory.
“We all appreciate him,” Lindor said. “We’re all a fan of him.”
Favorite moment
What is your favorite all-time L.A. sports moment? Email yours to houston.mitchell@latimes.com and it might run in a future Morning Briefing and Sports Report newsletter.
The next one comes from Judge Kelvin D. Filer of Compton:
“I think my all-time favorite has to be Game 4 of the 1987 NBA Finals. Lakers vs. Celtics.
“At the time of that game, I was serving as an elected member of the Board of Trustees for the Compton Unified School District. Game 4 was on a Tuesday evening, the same night as our regular school board meeting. We had recessed to go into ‘executive session’ to discuss personnel items.
“Toward the end of the session, I asked if we could quickly look at the score of the game on the TV that was in the meeting room. Sure enough ... it was the closing seconds! I insisted that we watch. The Lakers were going to get one more chance to take the lead! My fellow members wanted to go back out to resume the meeting, but I refused. I was a nervous wreck ... so they stayed there with me!
“When Magic Johnson drove down the lane and hit the ‘junior sky hook’ and the Lakers won, we were going crazy — all seven of us — in the back room! To this day, I have never revealed that this was the reason for our tardiness. It was well worth it!”