CLEVELAND — The relationship between superstar pop singer Justin Bieber and Cleveland Indians pitcher Shane Bieber has gone to the next level.
On Tuesday, Justin Bieber shared a photo on Instagram with him wearing a black Cleveland Indians Players' Weekend jersey.
"Thanks @shane_bieber for the jersey," Justin posted.
In each of the last two MLB Players' Weekends, in which players don aliases across the backs of their jerseys, Shane Bieber has gone with the nickname of 'Not Justin.'
So you might have expected that Justin Bieber was sporting a 'Not Justin' jersey. Not so much, according to TMZ. Justin's jersey had the nickname of 'Not Shane Bieber' with Shane's number 57.
The relationship between Shane and Justin Bieber began to pick up earlier this month after Topps made a mistake in the 2019 edition of Shane's card. While describing the strong start to his big league career, the back of Shane's card refers to him as "Justin," which the Indians' starting pitcher was quick to point out.
Topps' mixup made its way to other famous Bieber, who retweeted Shane's post to share that he's always felt a certain kinship with the reigning MLB All-Star Game MVP.
This isn't the first time Shane has found himself attached to Justin. When Shane was pulled from his big league debut in Minnesota last year, the sound system inside Target Field immediately filled with Justin's 2015 single "Sorry."
“I remember my debut in Minnesota,” Bieber told WKYC.com at TribeFest earlier this year. “I was like, ‘Oh, man. I wonder what they’re going to play because I’ve heard it all in college before. It’s fun. I really do have fun with it. Some of his most recent songs are pretty catchy, so I enjoy it.
“My debut in Minnesota, things were going pretty well, and I ended up giving up a couple runs and getting taken out. They started to play, ‘Is it too late to say, “Sorry?”’ There’s a lot of puns. He’s come up with a lot of good baseball songs for pitchers.”
Weeks later, Bieber toed the rubber at Progressive Field for the first time, and when he did, he was greeted by another one of Justin's most famous hits: "Baby."