I promised myself that the word ‘vuvuzela’ would not be written on this blog anywhere.  Sounds too much like the private regions of a woman.  But the irony of this is too much to pass up.

First, the Yankees have decided to ban the razzy sounding horn popularized and yet hated at the World Cup from Yankee Stadium.  Rumor has it that one fan had one grabbed from him by security as he entered the Yankee-Philly game. 

Yet at the same time, the Florida Marlins will be giving away 15,000 similar horns, considered obnoxious by many, as part of a promotion Saturday night.  This may backfire on the Marlins. 

These horns won’t be exactly the same as the vuvuzelas we’ve been seeing (and most likely hearing) at the World Cup.

From the Palm Beach Post:

The horns to be given away before Florida’s game against Tampa Bay are similar to but not the same as the soccer horns, said Sean Flynn, the Marlins’ vice president for marketing.

"They’re not as buzzing as vuvuzelas, but they’re loud,’ he said.

I’m sure as usual, Major League Baseball will have to come down with an edict, making a policy in horrendous detail, what is allowed and not allowed in MLB parks resulting in more security issues at parks. 

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Well, MLB thinks someone will.

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Last August, I wrote about the deal between MLB and Topps and how it was arranged that Topps would have exclusive rights to MLB logos and graphics. 

Now there seems to be another chapter to the story. 

MLB is now suing Upper Deck for trademark infringement for using its logos on its cards without permission. 

It said Upper Deck’s cards improperly feature various sport and team logos, and that some 2010 packaging featuring New York Yankee shortstop Derek Jeter may confuse consumers because of its similarity to authorized packaging used in 2009.

MLB wants to halt sales of the cards and seeks “triple and punitive damages”.

I’m all in Upper Deck’s corner for the non-competitive deal that MLB made with Topps last year but surely Upper Deck didn’t think they could get away with this.  MLB (and Topps for that matter) would be keeping their eyes on them for any trademark infringement.  And sure enough, they caught them with their hand in the figurative cookie jar. 

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Three months ago, MLB signed Topps Company to a major contract to produce and market baseball cards with the MLB teams’ logo.  This was an exclusive contract to the detriment to other card making companies such as Upper Deck. 

Now, Topps has scored another coup.  They have reached agreement with Major League Baseball Properties in a multi-year licensing deal to produce certain nationally distributed Minor League cards. 

The agreement makes Topps the only trading card manufacturer licensed by MLBP to produce nationally-distributed trading cards of top draft picks and prospects within Minor League Baseball, and will give Topps the rights to names and logos of the 160 affiliated Minor League clubs and current Minor League players in uniform on baseball cards and stickers beginning on January 1, 2010. In addition, Topps will now have the exclusive use of the Pro Debut logo. Its first product will be its 2010 Topps Pro Debut Series 1 to be unveiled in early March 2010.

As it was three months ago, this deal is exclusive. 

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I found my long lost George Brett autographed APBA card last night. 

There’s an interesting story behind it,  I posted about it at The APBA Blog. 

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With the playoffs here, Dell is pandering to the baseball fan now.  For a mere $85, they’ll design your new laptop with your favorite team’s logo.   

Pretty cool, huh?

That or you could buy a big team sticker for few bucks and slap it on there.  But hey, why be practical?

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This tattoo belongs to an employee at my favorite coffee shop.  It’s something else.

I was drawn to it initially when his shirt sleeve was down and all I saw were the baseball cleats and the stirrups.  Knowing that he was a devout Yankees fan, I knew it had to be baseball related and I asked if I could see it.

Wow, imagine my surprise when he pulled up his sleeve and I saw the pretty woman barely dressed in a vintage-style baseball uniform.   I’m not a tattoo person myself but I have to admit this was a conversation-starter.

He says it incorporated two of things he loved most in the world… baseball and women.

Sorry for the censorship box covering the good part.  I didn’t want to offend.  Here is the NSFW version (it is only a tattoo after all).

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Solve this mystery for me.  I found this refrigerator magnet (actually two of them) in my son’s room when cleaning his room with him.  I have no idea where we got them.

With two bats crossed and a smiling bear in the middle, the text of it says:

Lady Bruins

1954

Black Mountain University

Fossil Conf. AAA Winter League

After a web search, the only possible result that matched was a Black Mountain College that was founded 1933 near Asheville, North Carolina.  The school closed in 1957. 

I couldn’t find anything on a Fossil Conf Winter League. 

Keep in mind that it could either baseball or softball (I’m thinking softball).

Odd mystery and even odder that it would show up in my kid’s room.

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