In an interview with CNBC, Billy Ripken revealed the truth about his 1989 Fleer card: It was really his bat and it really says “Fuck Face” on it. I can now die a happy man (and I can do it clutching my Ripken “Fuck Face” card).
[QUOTE=Billy Ripken]
“Now I had to write something on the bat. At Memorial Stadium, the bat room was not too close to the clubhouse, so I wanted to write something that I could find immediately if I looked up and it was 4:44 and I had to get out there on the field a minute later and not be late. There were five big grocery carts full of bats in there and if I wrote my number 3, it could be too confusing. So I wrote ‘F–k’ Face on it.”
[/QUOTE]
The writing on the actual card is ridiculously clear. Much clearer than the pictures found on other baseball cards from the 80s. While I’m not sure I believe that, if the people at Fleer ever admitted that they did enhance it, I wouldn’t be surprised.
I was dealing in cards at that point. Fleer was a brand you couldn’t buy in huge quantities, the way you could Topps. So, I had two employees driving to every Lawson’s in the Akron Metro area for two days buying every box of Fleer we could get. I’d say we got a few hundred of them. I think I remember getting $10-25 each for them. The idea that they were worth $500(presented in that article) is ludicrous. A year later, no one cared.
[QUOTE=Billy Ripken]
“After the season was over, in early January, I got a call from our PR guy Rick Vaughn.”
[/QUOTE]
It could be coincidence, but Rick Vaughn is the character played by Charlie Sheen in Major League. Billy was always an asshole and I wouldn’t trust this story to be gospel.
