Cubs Vendors Adopt Stupid, Racist Shirt

"Pujols mows my lawn" tee pops up in Wrigleyville

By EAMONN BRENNAN

Updated 11:37 AM CST, Tue, May 19, 2009

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The Big Dead Sidebar

Just last week, we wrote an angry missive targeting whichever Cardinals fans thought it was OK to wear shirts that, alongside a picture of a man in a sombrero pushing a lawnmower, said "Zambrano mows my lawn."

This is, naturally, pretty racist. It's also not really that funny, which is sort of a key for racial humor. And it also smacked of a certain hypocrisy, or at least oversight, in Busch Stadium, where some Cardinals fans were being forced to turn their "Cubs suck" shirts inside out. It made it seem as though Busch was less interested in policing racism than in halting borderline-naughty language.

Of course, we made sure to include what was, to this point, the Cubs fan's latest, greatest racist t-shirt -- the Fukudome-related "Horry Kow" getup.

The point was that no matter what Cubs fans might say, they're just as bad as Cardinals fans; that there are bad apples in every fan base that ruin things for the reasonable ones.

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As if that point needed any more proof. This weekend, The Big Dead Sidebar was waltzing through Wrigleyville when it came upon a Cubs vendor's inversion of the "Zambrano mows my lawn" shirt: the ever-so-creative "Pujols mows my lawn," as seen at right.

Not only is this entirely uncreative and possibly a copyright violation (though we'd love to see the guy that has to go to court to protect this design as "intellectual property"), but it basically proves the point that everyone in the world is stupid.

We're not really sure how else we can phrase that.

Cubs fans, Cardinals fans, the vendors selling the shirts, anyone who would think to purchase one: you're stupid.

We hate being the self-righteous political correctness police type, but in this case, there's really no other way to put it. The shirts are stupid and racist. Anyone who owns one or sells one for money fits the same description.

Of course, it's people's free speech rights to be dumb, and if you want to walk down the street proving you're stupid, fine. But it's not about Cubs fans vs. Cards fans here. It's just about stupidity. It is, apparently, the one thing that bonds all of us, no matter the allegiance.

Eamonn Brennan is a Chicago-based writer, editor and blogger. You can also read him at Yahoo! Sports, Mouthpiece Sports Blog, and Inside The Hall, or at his personal site, eamonnbrennan.com. Follow him on Twitter.

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First Published: May 19, 2009 9:00 AM CST

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{"comments":[{"body":"Well, you obviously don't get it in your attempt to be politically correct. As someone from Arizona, who hires mexican immigrants to mow my own lawn, and has two friends who are in the landscaping business who are polynesian and anglosaxon, it is obvious that the shirt is a stereotype, which is why it is funny. Stereotyping is funny and if people are offended by it is because they are being over-sensitive and applying racist charges to things they do not understand. There is no such thing as races. We're all human beings with cultural pigmentation and culture through natural selection and genomics. Making stereotypical jokes relating to such cultural differences such as parking cars in your lawn, or mowing a lawn, or music you listen to can be funny and these shirts are funny. Funny because it is generally true. The insult isn't to those of hispanic cultures, but to Zambrano and Pujols themselves and anyone who thinks otherwise is missing the point and taking on the perceived offense of others upon themselves for no reason other than to make themselves appear self-righteous and elite, and all it does is make you look like a bigger and more pompous "stupid idiot" as you put it, than those you insult in your article.","createdAt":"8 Oct 2009 04:18:29 GMT","fromUserId":7918844,"isDefaultUserIconUploaded":false,"isDisabled":false,"isVisible":true,"messageId":1029205,"pathToPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg","reviewed":true,"updatedAt":"20090813055530","username":"anonymous_user"}],"media":{"isPublicTaggingAllowed":false,"uploadToAkamai":"","categories":"","pathToMedia":"388834_45398367","adminTags":"ct_article,sid_388834,sid_389199,sid_389234,sid_521677,sid_521687","uploadedByPhoto":"116995/icons/defaultMember_116995_portrait.jpg?t=1248875781749","views":279,"uploadedByName":"nbc_editor","isAdultContent":false,"updatedAt":"28 Oct 2009 06:22:42 GMT","country":"","pathToPreview48X48":"user/defaultAudio_48x48_C.jpg","inappropriateFlagCount":0,"isRatedByMe":"F","tags":"bored,laughing","originalFileFormat":"","isFavorite":"F","userId":7918858,"name":"Cubs Vendors Adopt Stupid, Racist Shirt","description":"A week after Cardinals fans were chastised for the "Zambrano Mows My Lawn" shirt, Cubs vendors show they're not only racist, but also uncreative.","createdAt":"8 Oct 2009 04:08:45 GMT","isVisible":true,"postalCode":"","title":"Cubs Vendors Adopt Stupid, Racist Shirt","isPublicCommentingAllowed":true,"stateOrProvinceName":"","author":"","reviewed":true,"updatedBy":7918844,"city":"","pathToPreview":"","type":"externalMedia","uploadToLimelight":"","votes":0,"averageRating":0},"payload_type":"json","status":"1","error":""}