New Blue Jays pitcher Shane Bieber embraces connection to Justin Bieber: ‘I've been hearing it since college'
has heard the jokes since college.
The 30-year-old starting pitcher, acquired by the
Blue Jays
from the Cleveland Guardians on MLB trade deadline day, is used to having his last name tied to Canadian pop star
Justin Bieber
.
In 2018, as he took the mound to warm up for a game, he was pranked by his teammates as the stadium sound system played Justin Bieber's hit song 'Baby' over the stadium speaker.
Apparently it wasn't the first time that happened.
'I mean, I've been hearing it since college,'
Bieber told MLB.com
at the time.
Later that season during the MLB Players' Weekend, which gave players the chance to wear nicknames on the back of their jerseys instead of their surnames, Shane Bieber leaned into the joke by choosing the nickname 'Not Justin.'
'A lot of people like to make the joke and try to mistake me for him. So, I thought I'd make it obvious and put it on the back of my jersey to let everyone know I'm
not
Justin Bieber.'
The Blue Jays have quickly leaned into the joke, too. Shortly after acquiring the right-hander, the team's official X account posted a photo of Justin Bieber wearing a Blue Jays jersey.
pic.twitter.com/tS7CvTRbjl
In 2019, Bieber was even called 'Justin' on an official Topps baseball card and shared the blunder on Twitter. The baseball card company responded with, 'is it too late to say sorry?'
Nice 🙂
@Topps
pic.twitter.com/FW8R1Ckzri
'You know it's there. And it's kind of fun and it's kind of fun to play along with,' Bieber said.
MLB.com
's Jordan Bastian also asked Bieber, who was a rookie at the time, if his goal was to become to most famous Bieber.
'I would hope so. I would hope so,' he joked. 'I don't know. He's kind of got a jump-start on me. He's pretty famous. I'm just having fun with it.'
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