1989 Baseball Quebec poster advertising the Youppi! piggy bank

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Overview

This A2-size, colourful poster is printed on white paper. On the left-hand half of the poster is a photograph of a baseball team mascot called Youppi!. The Canadian French text is printed in blue, red and black and is advertising the 'Youppi!' piggy bank for sale. In the bottom third of the poster, on the left-hand side, is the blue and white logo of Baseball Quebec. Beside the logo are 22 original signatures of the Australian Under-18 team members.

Historical information

This poster from the 1989 World Junior Baseball Championship, features Youppi! (French pronunciation: jupi; French for Yippee!), who was the official mascot for the Montreal Expos baseball team. It is an advertisement to purchase the Youppi! piggy bank. It also features a statement from Youppi! stating "I encourage amateur baseball", and the logo of Baseball Quebec, the provincial governing body for baseball in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Youppi!, a creation of Acme Mascots, Inc., was commissioned by Montreal Expos and originally leased by the baseball team in 1979. Eventually the mascot was purchased by the Expos and represented them until they moved to Washington, D.C., after the 2004 season. Its orange color was chosen as a reference to Rusty Staub, a former player for the Expos. The orange, hairy giant was a popular figure at Olympic Stadium prior to the Expos' relocation to Washington, D.C.

Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youppi!]

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-100-2020.705

Item type

Posters

Themes

People
Social History
Sport

Material

Paper

Width

43 cm

Height or length

61 cm

Inscriptions and markings

'J'encourage le baseball amateur' [Translation: I encourage amateur baseball]
'Tirelire Youppi!' [Translation: Youppi! piggy bank]
'Seulement 3.99' [Translation: Only 3.99]
'Taxe incluse' [Translation: Tax included]
'En vente' [Translation: For sale]

[22 Australian team signatures]
'Chet Gray'
'Scott Metcalf'
'Cameron Cairncross'
'Neil Whillans'
'Michael Dennis'
'Richard Gozzi'
'Stuart Harben'
'Nathan Peterson'
'Justin Weaver'
'Ron Harvey'
'Steve Gilmore'
'Lyndon Hockey'
'Mark Respondek'
'Ian Deany'
'Kevin Hooker'
'Michael Dunn'
'Adam Burton'
'Steve Hinton'
'Scott Dawes'
'Myles Barnden'
'Nathan Payne'
'Lyall Barwick'

Contextual Information

The 1989 World Junior Championship was the 9th World Junior Championship. It was held from August 10 through August 20 in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada. In the finale, the USA beat Cuba 11-3, Australia took the bronze medal, beating Taiwan 5-2.

Baseball Reference [https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/1989_World_Junior_Championship]

The entire Australian team have signed the poster, including several Western Australians—Lyall Barwick, Kevin Hooker, Mark Respondek, Stuart Harben and Scott Metcalf. Lyall Barwick has donated the poster to the Baseball WA Museum & Archives.

Keywords

1989 Australian Under 18 Baseball Team

1989 World Junior Championship

Youppi! Montreal Expos Mascot

Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, Canada

Poster

Signatures

Statement of significance

This rare and well-preserved poster has both historic and social significance as it records the names of junior Australian baseballers, including five Western Australians, who achieved a level of excellence in their sport. Junior baseball was an important pathway to Australian senior representation and/or Major League Baseball. The poster comes with excellent provenance.

Primary significance criteria

Historic significance

Social or spiritual significance

Comparative significance criteria

Object’s condition or completeness

Rare or representative

Well provenanced

Baseball WA

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