Pearl Jams Eddie Vedder tests out new MLB guitar

Before MLB’s latest trophy was provided up as the prize in a competitors between the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres, it had to go through the palms of Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.

The customized Fender Telecaster guitar, named the Vedder Cup, is said to have been performed by its namesake for “about an hour” before it was shipped off to T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

“He gave it a good run through,” George Webb, Pearl Jam’s gear supervisor, told the Seattle Times on Monday. “He always likes to feel like he puts a little energy, you know, spiritual energy, into an instrument. Not just hand off something that’s brand-new, never-touched kind of thing. So yeah, jammed on it for about an hour. Had a good time.”

The trophy options many nods from the 60-year-old musician, including a hand-drawn “cresting wave” illustration and an arrow and mod image — an allusion to Vedder’s tribute to the Who on his personal guitar. On the back, the Padres and Mariners logos seem alongside textual content hand-written by the singer and guitarist: “The Vedder Cup Established 2025 by Major League Baseball.”

It also comprises a emblem from EB Research Partnership, a nonprofit co-founded by Vedder and his spouse, Jill, after a childhood good friend’s son was born with the painful pores and skin condition epidermolysis bullosa. The nonprofit funds research on the disease.

The cup is meant to carry “meaningful awareness” to the uncommon disorder, Mariners Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Trevor Gooby said in a assertion in March, when the longtime rivalry turned official.

“We can’t wait to see this rivalry series grow and look forward to battling the Mariners for the Vedder Cup,” Padres Chief Executive Erik Greupner added.

The rivalry, such as it’s, arose from forces both real and manufactured, apparently. Vedder has strong ties to both cities, having grown up in San Diego, then moved to Seattle to start Pearl Jam with Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament — hence, the “Vedder” Cup.

Also, upon the introduction of interleague play in the late ’90s, MLB appeared for “natural” rivalries between groups just like the Padres and Mariners. This 12 months, the league canonized the rivalry, which is said to have begun as geographic, given both groups’ West Coast houses, GWN stories.

The two groups have met virtually yearly since 1997. In the casual all-time collection, Seattle at present leads 68-63. Additionally, they share a training complicated in Peoria, Ariz.

Some followers are still left with questions as to why the competitors has turned official, with one claiming on Reddit that “padres and mariners fans literally give no s— about each other.”

Still, they conceded it’s “likely the most meaningless and yet kinda fun thing in MLB.”

The trophy was in the highlight Monday when the groups met for the fourth time this season. The Mariners notched a 9-6 victory over the Padres, taking the season collection after three earlier wins in San Diego. The Padres beat the Mariners Tuesday, 7-6, and the ultimate recreation is Wednesday, but the competition has already been determined. Cal Raleigh, the Mariners’ switch-hitting, homer-hammering catcher, identified as “Big Dumper,” hoisted and performed the trophy in celebration Monday night time.

The identify and emblem for the cup have been first shown off in March, but its last design wasn’t completed until the weeks main up to the fixture.

“Typically on a custom build like this it will take us six months or so to source the wood, get everything mapped out ready to go and take our time to vet the process, apply the graphics, do some test runs,” Chase Paul, director of product development for Fender, told the Seattle Times. “On this we just kind of headed into it in parallel with testing and the production version at the same time, and kind of getting it ready to go.”

In all, it took Fender eight or 9 weeks to get the work performed, which Paul called a “really incredible effort by the team in the shop.”

Naturally, Vedder doesn’t need the trophy guitar to sit on a shelf for the next 12 months while it’s in the Mariners’ possession. According to Webb, “He wants it to be played.”

“That’s his attitude with everything. It’s a living, breathing instrument. It sounds great,” he added.

As an added bonus to followers, the league announced it could give away limited-edition Vedder Cup hats during the last 2025 recreation between the 2 on Wednesday.

To no shock, the exclusive ticket bundle that included the hats has bought out.