If you’ve been anywhere near baseball social media this week, you’ve probably seen it: grown men in the upper deck, shirts off, twirling them over their heads like they’re at a college football game. Welcome to Tarps Off, the most gloriously dumb thing to happen to Major League Baseball in years—and the sport is completely here for it.
Here’s how it started.
Last Friday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, a club baseball team from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, was in Alton, Illinois, for the National Club Baseball Division II World Series. The Cardinals offered tickets, 17 players showed up, and somewhere in the middle of a Cardinals-Royals game, one of them—Caleb Cummings, by most accounts—suggested they take their shirts off. His teammate Bryce Bradford apparently supplied the words that launched a movement, and suddenly a couple hundred fans in right field were shirtless, waving their shirts in circles over their heads, making noise that hadn’t been heard in a baseball stadium in a long time.
The Cardinals won in 11 innings. Manager Oliver Marmol loved it so much he bought out the entire right-field section for Saturday’s game and invited the SFA team back. They came back. The Cardinals won again.
It is worth noting that Tarps Off did not originate at Busch Stadium. The concept traces back to the 2025 college football season, when a fan at Oklahoma State, allegedly accepting a $10 bet from his sister, stood alone in an empty section of Boone Pickens Stadium, shirtless, waving his shirt in circles. Oklahoma State was having a miserable season and the fans needed something. It caught on that day, spread to other stadiums, showed up at an outdoor hockey game at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium in January, and eventually found its way to baseball.
From St. Louis, it went everywhere. Within days, Tarps Off sections had broken out at games in Tampa Bay, Detroit, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Anaheim. The Rays and Mariners’ official social media accounts leaned into it. The Cardinals officially designated their right-field bleachers a Tarps Off zone. Even Fredbird joined in.
The Phillies took it a step further: Fans went tarps off in the pouring rain during a 4-1 loss to the Reds. The game was out of reach, it was miserable outside, and they did it anyway. That might be the most Phillies thing that has ever happened, and somehow it was also perfect.
As for Daikin Park? Tarps Off eventually made its way to Houston.
The trend reached Houston during the Astros’ early June homestand and was still drawing a crowd by the following night—with video to prove it. Whether it sticks around long term remains to be seen, but baseball, a sport occasionally accused of being too slow and too quiet, stumbled into something loud and goofy and infectious, and instead of flinching, it embraced it. That’s worth noting.
Heading to Daikin Park soon? Check the Astros promotions schedule before your next game.
