Shirtless baseball fans are all the rage with ‘Tarps Off’ movement
Talkin' Gaysball: Dudes throughout MLB are taking off their shirts en masse. It's almost Pride Month. Hmm....
Mark
Welcome back to Talkin’ Gaysball where we play “Rain On Me” when the tarps come off…
When I wrote about a group of shirtless Rockies fans taking over Coors Field in mid-April, I expected the story to be a fun little one-off.
At the time, I figured there was no way that people in other cities would also be willing to check their dignity at the door in the superstitious hopes of inspiring their teams to rally.
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I’ve apparently never met a baseball fan in my life.
What I first thought of as a silly little happening in the Mile High City has blossomed into the Tarps Off phenomenon: a new fan craze where entire sections of major league ballparks take their shirts off, twirl them over their heads, and lose their damn fool minds cheering their teams.
Observing from afar, it’s fitting that Tarps Off started in the outfield seats. Because for Baseball Gays, let’s just say that seeing that many bare torsos concentrated in one rectangular space looks…familiar. Then all you have to do is look at the outfield wall to read “368 feet away.”
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The trend that started in Colorado gained national prominence when the Stephen F. Austin University baseball team attended a St. Louis Cardinals game on May 15 while in town for a tournament. As the contest went on, they decided to migrate to an empty section at Busch Stadium, take off their shirts, and do roll call chants for various Cardinal players.
At first, this was just the college ballplayers. But as Cardinal fans realized that the specter of Yadier Molina was not going to suddenly materialize over The Arch and start a brawl over disrespecting the game, more of them concluded they would not be punished for having fun at a baseball park and joined in.
The freespirited buzz built steadily. Cardinal players noticed and stepped up to play one of their most exciting games of the year, culminating in 11th inning walk-off single from Yohel Pozo.
Afterward, Cards manager Oli Marmol was ebullient about the barechested throngs, telling the media, “Whoever started that in right field, I’ll do whatever I need to do to make sure they come to every game.”
Sure enough, the next day, Marmol promised to buy tickets for any fans in right field who wanted to go Tarps Off. The Stephen F. Austin team returned, led the fans in more barechested revelry, and the Cards won again.
It was now a trend and the baseball world was abuzz.
This being St. Louis, of course, Cardinal fans soon started acting as though they’d invented the concept of shirtlessness. They even made t-shirts to brag about it.
Nonetheless, Tarps Off quickly caught fire, with gaggles of barechested fans soon showing up in Tampa Bay, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Arizona.
This trend could not have taken off with better timing for our community. I’m going to nominate whoever scheduled June to begin next week for NL MVP.
Because if this remains a national story, MLB teams are going to keep encouraging shirtless revelry for another month. Which means it’s going to coincide with Pride Nights.
Stadiums throughout MLB will be packed with barechested sweaty guys as the sound system blares Beyonce, Miley, and Whitney at max volume. Thousands of rainbow jersey clad gays are going to step into the seating bowl at ballparks all over the country and finally understand the appeal of a night at the ballpark.
If you still need convincing that this will be good for MLB Pride, consider this: Texas Rangers fans are going Tarps Off too. And they just taught the baseball universe an important lesson.
Pride Night + Tarps Off = Walk-off Win.
No Pride Night + Tarps Off = Getting No Hit.
Definitive proof that Pride Nights are a competitive advantage. It’s science, people.
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