Everything You Need to Know About '1738': Meaning, Pronunciation, and History
The slang soon breached the hip-hop bubble entirely. During the 2015 Major League Baseball season, the Kansas City Royals turned "1738" into an internal clubhouse game on their march toward a World Series championship.
Royals players including Lorenzo Cain, Eric Hosmer, and Salvador Perez implemented a strict locker room rule: any player who gave a televised press interview had to slip the phrase "seventeen thirty-eight" into their remarks. If a player completed an interview without working the number into a sentence, the clubhouse fined him exactly $17.38. The resulting press conferences featured athletes awkwardly squeezing the number into game breakdowns, baffling older sports reporters while delighting younger fans online.
Fetty Wap took notice. He visited Kauffman Stadium during the Royals' playoff run, cementing a strange, joyful alliance between North Jersey street rap and midwestern baseball culture.
The business side felt the impact as well. Liquor store owners and regional distributors across the United States reported unprecedented demand for Rémy Martin 1738 Accord Royal throughout 2015 and 2016. Young consumers who previously reached for standard vodka or beer began buying $65 bottles of cognac just to repeat the ad-lib at house parties. The French spirits house received millions of dollars in organic marketing without ever cutting an initial sponsorship check.
