Getty Image / Maddy Grassy / IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Just in time for Summer, guys being dudes is back. This time around it has taken the form of a new trend that has taken Major League Baseball by storm: Tarps Off.
The Tarps Off trend has been seen across MLB stadiums throughout the country. Guys popping their shirts off, twisting them around in their hands, swinging them like a helicopter, all in support of their teams. As far as I can tell, the Tarps Off Trend is here to stay for the foreseeable future as it has injected a lot of energy into the games.
What Is The Tarps Off Trend In MLB?
Professional soccer is known for raucous audiences with organized chants. In England’s Premier League the home teams have songs drafted up about the opposition and are constantly updating them as new players come in and out of the squads. They put an incredible amount of effort into heckling the opposition through song.
In College Football, fight songs are the lifeblood of home games. I went to FSU and everyone knows the ‘War Chant’ and the power it possesses. But baseball has never had a league-wide trend like this until now. Sure, there’s been the wave and heckling runs rampant in the outfields but not like this.
The Tarps Off trend began in St. Louis with the Cardinals last weekend and quickly exploded in popularity across the nation. It has already been seen in Tampa Bay where the Rays hold the best winning percentage in baseball, in Philly, Anaheim, Seattle, and Detroit. The Tarps Off trend is infectious.
‘Tarps Off’ is of course a reference to tarps coming off the field after a rain storm. But it works perfectly as a trend name when talking about popping a shirt off.
Coast To Coast
Here is an overhead shot of Tarps Off in St. Pete last night as my Tampa Bay Rays picked up another win:
Out in St. Louis where the Tarps Off trend first began, the crowd of dudes popping their shirts off to swing them around their heads continues to grow in size by the day. By the All-Star break the ‘Tarps Off’ section could very well encompass the entire outfield if it grows at the current rate.
Already, the Tarps Off trend has picked up juice from the media. Articles from the Toronto Star, FOX 2, Sports Illustrated, and even NPR have waxed poetic about guys being dudes and how this trend is ‘sweeping the baseball world’ in NPR’s words.
The sport of baseball has not always been synonymous with the best physique among all the major sports. That reputation has sometimes trickled into the stands as well. But there is certainly some underlying body positivity going on here as one must be confident in their figure before popping their shirt off for the whole world to see on television.
What do you guys think, is the Tarps Off trend here to stay? Let me know what you think in the all-new BroBible Comments Section down below.