Baseball Fans Are Suddenly Taking Their Shirts Off. It's Working.

Baseball stadiums, usually known for the polite hum of polite applause and the occasional vendor shouting about peanuts, are suddenly getting a new kind of energy. It's called "Tarps Off," and it involves young men enthusiastically removing their shirts and waving them overhead. Because apparently that's where we are now. And it's glorious.

Think less serene summer evening, more soccer stadium roar. This trend is injecting a much-needed jolt into a sport often criticized for its, shall we say, reserved crowd participation.

How a College Team Broke Baseball's Shirt Barrier

The whole shirtless phenomenon kicked off in St. Louis just last Friday. A club baseball team from Stephen F. Austin State University was in town for a tournament, and the Cardinals, being good hosts, offered them some game tickets.

Seventeen players showed up, decided to go shirtless, and started a ruckus. Soon, hundreds of fans in right field joined the bare-chested brigade, creating a noise level that reportedly helped the Cardinals pull off a 5-4 win against the Kansas City Royals. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol was so impressed by the sheer, unadulterated energy that he bought the group tickets for the next day's game. Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn noted the younger generation was turning the stadium into a college game atmosphere. Even Fredbird, the mascot, got in on it.

Since then, the "Tarps Off" movement has spread like wildfire (or, perhaps, a very enthusiastic rash) to other MLB cities. Detroit, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Anaheim have all seen their fair share of torso-flaunting fans.

Chad Bitzer, a Mariners fan of 13 years, explained his participation in Seattle with a shrug that could only come from a man who'd just bared his chest for baseball: "Everyone else was doing it, and it was a beautiful night."

And here's the kicker: it seems to be working. More shirtless fans cheered on the Cardinals to a 9-6 win against the Pirates. Similar scenes played out for the Tampa Bay Rays. In Philadelphia, a small but mighty group celebrated in the rain. Angels fans even weaponized the trend, using it to chant for their owner to sell the team. Which, if you think about it, is both impressive and slightly terrifying.

Major League Baseball attendance is up by about 1,000 fans per game compared to last year. If this trend continues, baseball could average 30,000 fans per game for the first time since 2016. So, if you're heading to a game soon, maybe skip the undershirt. For the team, of course.