an absolutely ridiculous essay
When the New York Yankees take the field in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Absolutely Ridiculous will be leaving an indelible mark on the game.
A seemingly ubiquitous moment between father and son that played out on a little league field more than 30 years ago is now manifesting on baseball’s biggest stage with the potential to reshape America's pastime.
Absolutely Ridiculous founder and visionary designer, X, snagged a baseball in the upper webbing of his mitt more than 25 years ago, a precarious play that anyone who’s ever played the game can imagine. The ball halfway out of the top of the glove resembled a snow cone to his father but looked more like an ice cream cone to young X, who imagined aloud if there could ever be such a thing.
The rest, as they say, is history.
X pursued a life playing baseball, and when that chapter closed, he turned to his childhood dream of an actual ice cream cone glove for inspiration.
He approached two different major manufacturers, and both, for different reasons, said the exact same thing – that his idea was “absolutely ridiculous.”
So, driven by the same resilience that defines the company, X learned how to design and make gloves. He spent countless hours designing before landing his first prototypes.
“Absolutely Ridiculous evolved out of necessity, of realizing that there was a gap in something that I really loved which was baseball and art. My goal was to create something fun and innovative to really change the way people look at sports and look at connection.”
Yankees utility third baseman Jazz Chisholm, Jr. and closer Luke Weaver are taking the diamond with Absolutely Ridiculous in their arsenal.
Jazz, aka Prince Jazz or Prince from Outer Space, is also the company’s Director of Culture. He first started collaborating with X in 2022. A leading example of self-expression in professional sports, Jazz was instantly geeked out by array of fielding mitts, sliding gloves, and elbow and leg protectors X laid before him.
“I don’t want to be remembered as everyone else. I want to be remembered as someone different from everybody." said Jazz.
X said that he had created a list of athletes he would target for collaboration, athletes who embodied the values of the company. Jazz Chisholm was at the top of the list for obvious reasons.
“Absolutely Ridiculous wants to provide athletes with the inspiration to be creative,” added X. “Today’s era is the first time I think in baseball history where it’s completely open to full-fledged self-expression.”
Likewise, Jazz was hooked from the beginning.
“When I saw these (gloves), and I was like bro, what we’re going to come out to with these... I was like bro, we’re going to turn the game up and nobody’s going to be able to stop us.”
The Bible Glove that Luke has made popular since taking the mound as the Yankees closer earlier this year started out as X’s first art project after the ice cream glove. He shared it with Luke, a personal friend, who also collaborated on the three verses to use on the fingers.
It was Luke’s faith and a desire to bring his devotion and baseball together in a different form of personal expression that accelerated his work with X.
X and Absolutely Ridiculous finished a quality sample for Luke which he wore for the first time coming off the disabled list in 2022.
The Bible Glove was born.
“The Bible Glove takes it to another level,” said Luke who said he was already looking for a glove with a symbol of his faith to inspire him on the mound. “I’m out there wearing it and can feel his presence."
The scripture imprinted inside the glove was special to Luke but as X put it could give anyone the confidence during a game knowing they are not alone. The crown of thorns in the palm is there to remind the wearer that no matter how tough it may feel in the moment that there are bigger challenges we will face, and that you will make it through them.
“Our idea for Absolutely Ridiculous is creating collaboration to get people to work together to take some risks so that we can create better and cooler and more fun things to make this reality this real world we have even more fun by dreaming things into existence.”
“Our idea for Absolutely Ridiculous is creating collaboration to get people to work together to take some risks so that we can create better and cooler and more fun things to make this reality this real world we have even more fun by dreaming things into existence.”
And to think, it all began with the dream of an ice cream cone.
