F*ck F*ce

According to his bat, William Oliver Ripken was a fuck face. The Fleer Corporation agreed with Billy’s bat, and released this information to the public in 1989 in the form of a trading card.

Immediately regretting this decision, The Fleer Corporation scrambled to hide the opinion of the bat, releasing versions in which the words were scrawled over with a marker, whited out, and airbrushed. On the final, corrected version, Fleer covered up the offensive words with a clumsy black box, the version included in all factory sets.

                             

Years later, Billy admitted to marking the knob of the Louisville Slugger with the expletive as a way to distinguish his batting practice bat from his regular bat. He also claimed he did not intend to use it for the card and expressed the opinion that Fleer was well aware of the obscenity, and not only retained but made it even clearer, in the hopes of benefitting from the publicity the card would receive. The bat was unavailable for question.

Various incarnations of the cover-up. Thanks to Rich Greco for the guest post.