Major League Baseball is experiencing an epidemic of (mostly) .
At ballparks across the country, groups consisting of mostly young men are that’s loud, goofy, infectious and new to the baseball world. Joining in on the fun is simple: Go to the section where the party is happening, take off your shirt and start twirling it above your head.
Soccer-like chants or singing usually follows — injecting a jolt of energy for a sport that occasionally is chided for its lack of energy inside the stadium.
After getting its start in St. Louis last Friday, it has spread across the league to places like , , , and .
Chad Bitzer, who has been coming to Mariners games for about 13 years, was among the shirtless fans in Seattle. His reasoning was simple: “Cause everyone else was taking it off. Why not?”
“It’s fresh. It’s a beautiful night. Take it off,” Bitzer said. “Great Northwest night. We live for the summers. We live for the good weather.”
Ground zero for the shirtless outbreak was in St. Louis last Friday, when a club baseball team affiliated with Stephen F. Austin State University was in Alton, Illinois, for the National Club Baseball Division II World Series. The Cardinals offered tickets to the team, and 17 players attended.
That group started the fun, dozens of others joined and suddenly there were a couple hundred fans creating a ruckus in right field that helped over the Kansas City Royals. Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol loved the energy so much that he bought tickets for the shirtless revelers for Saturday’s game and they returned.
“It’s hard not to have fun when the fans are like that,” Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn said Friday. “We’ve got the best fans in the world, but it seems like the younger generation makes it more like a college atmosphere.”
Even Cardinals mascot Fredbird joined in on the fun.
Now it might be the start of a tradition — in Tuesday’s game against the Pirates. It certainly seems to be a boost for the club’s home-field advantage: Ivan Herrera hit a three-run homer to lift the .
A similar outbreak of shirtless fans broke out at a Tampa Bay Rays game Monday and again Tuesday. Another as the Reds and Phillies played in the rain. Angels fans celebrated with a mix of joy and irritation, chanting for owner Arte Moreno to sell the team.
MLB certainly won’t complain about the attention. Attendance is up at big league stadiums so far this season, averaging roughly 1,000 more fans per game than a year ago through Monday’s contests.
If the trend continues, baseball could average 30,000 fans per game for the first time since 2016.
More and more, they might just be shirtless.
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AP Sports Writer Andrew Destin in Seattle and AP freelance writer Warren Mayes in St. Louis contributed to this report.
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