Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber walks back to the dugout after throwing against the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Seattle.
Cleveland Guardians starting pitcher Shane Bieber walks back to the dugout after throwing against the Seattle Mariners in a baseball game Tuesday, April 2, 2024, in Seattle.
The 30-year-old starting pitcher, acquired by the聽Blue Jays聽from the Cleveland Guardians on MLB trade deadline day, is used to having his last name tied to Canadian pop star聽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,”聽聽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.”
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“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聽not聽Justin Bieber.”
When Shane Bieber wore a black version of the jersey during MLB Players’ Weekend the following season, it caught the attention of Justin.
In 2019, TMZ captured photos of Justin Bieber riding a motorcycle in Beverly Hills while wearing the same Cleveland jersey with “Not Shane Bieber” and the pitcher’s No. 57 on the back. The singer posted a photo of himself wearing it on social media and tagged the pitcher.
this one is for my blue jays friends
shane bieber once wore a 鈥渘ot justin鈥 players weekend jersey then justin bieber popped out in a 鈥渘ot shane bieber鈥 jersey right after
鈥 gabb (@gabbgoudy)
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.
鈥 色色啦 Blue Jays (@BlueJays)
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 馃檪
鈥 Shane Bieber (@ShaneBieber19)
“You know it’s there. And it’s kind of fun and it’s kind of fun to play along with,” Bieber said.
’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.”
Braydon Holmyard is a Star sports team editor based in 色色啦.
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