Reds' Tyler Stephenson dons Ricky Bobby-inspired gear at Speedway Classic

New York Times

6 hours ago

BRISTOL, Tenn. — As soon as he heard about the game at Bristol Motor Speedway, Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson began brainstorming something special he could do for the game.
Stephenson, whose walk-up music at Great American Ball Park is the Starlight Vocal Band's 'Afternoon Delight' from the movie 'Anchorman,' immediately thought about another of his favorite movies, Will Ferrell's 2006 romp, 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.'
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'A classic movie, and they did a great job, and I decided to wear it,' Stephenson said before the game.
In honor of both NASCAR and one-time Cincinnati Red Farrell, Stephenson contacted his reps at Evoshield to create catching gear based on the Wonder Bread-sponsored No. 26 car. Stephenson's chest protector is mostly white, featuring a take on the Wonder Bread logo with 'Cincinnati' in place of the company's name.
There are other details that make the outfit, including flames on the shoulders, the Speedway Classic logo, Stephenson's No. 37 in a race car-like font, the Reds' 'C' logo with checkered flags and the name 'Tyler Robby' stitched on the bottom of the chest protector. The shin guards are the primary red, white and blue of Wonderbread, and his hockey goalie-style catcher's mask is a work of art with racing graphics and other touches.
A born-and-bred Georgian, Stephenson said he didn't grow up as a NASCAR fan, but was struck by just the size of Bristol Speedway, which has a seating capacity of 146,000 and at least 85,000 spectators for Saturday's baseball game.
'It's a sweet facility,' Stephenson said. 'It turned out even better than the pictures online. It's a totally different feel than the 'Field of Dreams' game. The historical part of 'Field of Dreams' was cool, but this is obviously a much bigger stage. What is it, 85,000-90,000 fans? It's like playing in front of a football crowd.'
Stephenson was injured in 2022 when the Reds played in the 'Field of Dreams' game in Iowa, but still went with the team to the game to experience it.
Fellow Reds catcher Jose Trevino had a pair of cleats customized commemorating a different racing movie, Pixar's 'Cars.' Trevino had his Lightning McQueen-inspired cleats signed by both Tim McGraw and Pitbull, who performed pregame.
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Stephenson was a senior in high school when Farrell played with the Reds during spring training of 2015, but the catcher said he'd love for Farrell to come back to the Reds any time. Not only does Stephenson use a song from a Farrell film as his walk-up song, but when he was in the minor leagues, he and then-teammate Taylor Trammell posed together like in their Daytona Tortugas uniforms in the pose from the movie 'Stepbrothers,' another Farrell film with John C. Reilly, who is also in 'Talladega Nights.'
We've come a long way brother 🤵🏻🤵🏾 pic.twitter.com/bgfstTg3UX
— Taylor Trammell (@Taytram24) December 25, 2018
Of the three, though, 'Stepbrothers' is his favorite.
'Those are the top three,' he said. 'I think 'Stepbrothers' is No. 1. It's 1A, 1B, 1C — they're all right there.'
As Ricky Bobby would tell him, though, 'if you ain't first, you're last.'