Photo Credit: Pantone 294
Dodgers traveling club, Pantone 294, is one of the most renowned traveling clubs that any team in sports has to offer. They follow the Dodgers around like a live-wired motorcycle club who sport charter buses instead of Harley Davidson’s while abiding by a respectable moral compass. Today their CEO, Alexander Soto, set off a little bomb on social media when he posted the following:
I’m a fool. Someone take my credit card away 😂 pic.twitter.com/7qQV2Gm01P
— aLex (@alexuur) March 22, 2021
Truly just a stone’s throw away from the Green Monster.
Views 👀 pic.twitter.com/C5dQCkkNJs
— Pantone 294 (@Pantone294) March 22, 2021
Considering the traveling club is named after the exact shade of blue of the Dodgers, this is a man who simply lives and breathes hues. The blue billboard surrounded by the red brick-infused surrounding buildings just screams “can’t miss”.
Besides his color-coordinating abilities, I do applaud him for reigniting the war between Boston and LA. After Lebron and Mav Carter teamed up to take stake in the Red Sox it seemed like this rivalry would soon fade out. I’m not the only Lakers fan who innately balls up their fist like the Arthur meme when seeing clips of Kevin Garnett obnoxiously screaming “anything is possible” after beating the purple and gold in the 2007 finals. Between 2007 and 2011, pulling up to Fenway in a Pau Gasol or Chad Billingsley jersey was diabolical. It was a surefire way to hear a couple NSFW phrases and possibly a beer tossed at you.
However, in today’s current climate was this an exercise in futility? ABSOLUTELY. This is dumping a jug of isopropyl alcohol onto the still fresh wounds of Red Sox fans who had to watch their franchise whisk away last winter. Their animosity is aimed towards ownership and not Mookie Betts. This was the anthesis of the Manny Ramirez trade to the Dodgers in 2008 where there was constant drama between him and the team. No person in Boston wanted to watch him go and that says a lot. So if this billboard made it a week without being littered with obscenities or a printed picture of Machado on one knee striking out to end the 2018 World Series-I’d be utterly shocked. Hell, if the billboard stays there perfectly intact for a month, I’ll order a 16 inch and 12 piece buffalo chicken wings from the pizza joint underneath it.
I’ll probably forget about this come July, but at the moment it’s awesome to see a new talking point on Twitter. Right now it’s that part of the year where baseball talk gets drowned out by March Madness.This was a much-needed event to get myself and others fired up for the upcoming season.
So thank you to Pantone 294 and Alex Soto for resurrecting a rivalry and making people debate something much more important than masks or vaccines.