CNBC’s Darren Rovell reports that, for the first time, Major League Baseball has divulged the list of their top selling jerseys, by player. He has a story about it here and then lists the top 10 in a slide show, which is somewhat annoying. For what it’s worth, Derek Jeter is, not surprisingly, the top seller. Joe Mauer is second. All of the top 10 are superstars like Albert Pujols, Roy Halladay and A-Rod. There are no particularly young players on there, with Tim Lincecum being the baby of the bunch.
I find this interesting: seven of the top ten are white American guys, with A-Rod, Pujols and Jeter being the only Latino and/or black players. That’s not exactly representative of the player pool at large. Does it say anything about player promotion? Fans’ discomfort with wearing jerseys of players of a different race or ethnicity? Does it mean nothing and suggest that I’m just looking for a fight? Probably some of all of that, to be honest. But it is the kind of stuff I think is interesting.
For the record, I own no player-specific merchandise of any kind, but if I was going to buy a jersey I’d probably get a Jason Heyward one simply because he’s the guy I tend to be more of a fanboy of than anyone else. I once wrote a post -- which I can’t find at the moment -- of what player’s jersey I’d buy if I had to buy one for each team. If I recall, it didn’t track at all closely with who the best or coolest player was for that team. It was rather idiosyncratic, actually. I suppose fulfilling that dream would require a lot of custom orders, though, and that for most people, buying the jersey of a team’s superstar off the rack is a lot easier.
But please, if you happen to see a pre-made Ron Oester Reds jersey, please let me know.
