Inside Bridgestone Golf’s Cancelled 2020 Promo Set

The hobby saw a surge of new collectors/flippers/investors in 2020. With the rise in popularity, it makes perfect sense for companies to issue cards to promote almost anything.

Bridgestone Golf’s days of making trading cards lasted about as long as Ryan Leaf’s NFL career. Ok. Maybe Ryan Leaf had a bit of a longer run. But not by much.

In November 2020, Bridgestone Golf thought it would be a good idea to print up some cards to use for promotional purposes.

The retro-style set consists of (5) cards and (1) sticker.

• Tiger Woods #1
• Fred Couples #2
• Bryson DeChambeau #3
• Matt Kuchar #4
• Tiger Woods & Fred Couples #5

Whoever designed the set must have been a big fan of 1990 Topps Baseball. The card’s border clearly is a homage to that set. Photos have been replaced with animated images. Backs provide some stats while advertising Bridgestone Golf balls.

What led to the downfall of this promotion and denied it to collectors? According to a Bridgestone Golf Sales Rep it was Tiger’s agent. Bridgestone Golf is a sponsor of Tiger Woods, but apparently that doesn’t allow them to make cards of him. Tiger’s agent pointed out that his client has an exclusive trading card deal with Upper Deck, and demanded if the sets weren’t pulled legal action would take place. Deciding to save on legal fees, Bridgestone Golf cancelled the promotion and very few cards saw the light of day.

Bridgestone Golf pulled all photos of this promotion off of their social media. Although a Tweet from Darren Rovell briefly talking about it is still visible.

Its too bad this set was DOA. I know there are a lot of golf collectors who would’ve liked to get their hands on one.

Cancelled 2020 MLB Little League Classic Pins Begin To Surface – Red Sox vs. Orioles

This COVID-19 virus sure has messed-up a lot of stuff.  Everyone wishes we could just go back to the way things use to be.  Life will eventually get back to normal, but it certainly won’t happen overnight.

One of the casualties of this horrific virus is the Little League World Series.  It has officially been canceled for 2020.  This will be a significant impact to baseball fans, and businesses to the surrounding communities.  Hotels, restaurants, and shops are already hurting.  Taking away the business generated when the world comes to Williamsport will only deepen the economic blow.

With the cancellation of the 2020 Little League World Series also comes the cancellation of the MLB Little League Classic.  Taking place during the Little League World Series, the MLB Little League Classic features two MLB teams playing a regular season game at BB&T Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field right there in Williamsport.  Little League players, and their families are welcomed to attend.  For a lot of these kids, this game might be the only chance they have to watch a MLB game in person.

Collectible lapel pins are a huge part of the Little League World Series.  Everywhere you look teams, districts, players, umpires, ushers, emergency medical staff, security guards, corporate sponsors, and local businesses have pins they’re looking to buy/sell/trade.  2020 will be an unusual year with a low number of pins.  With no Little League World Series being played, it doesn’t make sense to spend money on making them right now.  Especially during this economic downturn.

Some 2020 pins have found their way out.  I suppose they were in the works before the Little League World Series was cancelled.  Take this pin for instance.

It commemorates the now cancelled 2020 MLB Little League Classic between the Red Sox and Orioles.  A handful of these pins have been floating around Williamsport.  I wasn’t fast enough to hit the “Buy It Now” on the first two, but I got lucky with the third.  They were selling extremely fast.  According to the seller, only (50) of these pins were made.  I’ve seen a few different variations.  The pin I bought has a white scoreboard.  Others come in grey.  Its possible there could be more colors.  I’d speculate each color is limited to (50) copies.