{"id":8675,"date":"2026-08-05T10:36:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:36:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8675"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:36:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:36:30","slug":"the-last-holdouts-of-mlbs-tarps-off-trend-are-getting-lonely-and-sunburned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8675","title":{"rendered":"The last holdouts of MLB\u2019s \u2018tarps off\u2019 trend are getting lonely (and sunburned)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Philly fans go \u201ctarps off\u201d in July. (Chris Szagola\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

One of those orange bottles of Banana Boat sunscreen is resting somewhere on a curb or a bench or maybe even taking a swim in the Anacostia River. Having been out and about Tuesday afternoon, Corey Horan just can\u2019t remember where he left it.<\/p>

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He has some guesses: maybe at a bar in Navy Yard, or possibly on a bench overlooking the water, where he waited for his Uber home. He also knows where it is not: with him, standing alone in Section 236 of Nationals Park at roughly 2 p.m. on a Wednesday, skipping his job as a project manager at a tech firm to go shirtless at a sparsely attended late-July MLB day game. <\/b><\/p>\n

Early in May, he\u2019d been scrolling X when he came across a video of a couple of St. Louis Cardinals fans who\u2019d ventured to the upper deck of Busch Stadium during a blowout. Upon arrival, they took their shirts off and swung them through the air. You \u2014 if your social feeds like baseball or shirtless dudes \u2014 know the rest. \u201cTarps off,\u201d the term coined for the trend of fans going shirtless at games, <\/b>has captivated U.S. sports in recent months.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
With abs like those (lower left), you\u2019d never go tarps on. (Jeff Roberson\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

It may have originated in college football years ago. (Drunken undergrads are the best cultural innovators.) But it really took off in baseball this year, before <\/b>gradually infiltrating the World Cup and the <\/b>Manhattan streets around Madison Square Garden during the NBA Finals. Some teams, including the Washington Nationals, even started using videos of the shirtless brigade on social channels for ticket promos.<\/p>\n

But as trends do, it\u2019s waning, especially in baseball\u2019s dog days of summer. Now, for every packed section of dad bods and farmer\u2019s tans, there are double the number of empty seats, and moms lowering their sunglasses with an eyebrow raised, as if to ask: Really?<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re the lone soldiers,\u201d Horan, 43, says as the wind slaps against his extraordinarily visible pirate chest tattoo. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say this is dying \u2026 but it\u2019s at least in its downtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Shirtless in Cleveland, a midsummer (but not late summer) dream. (David Dermer\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Originally, the vision was one of simplicity: \u201cguys being dudes,\u201d Horan says, which he believes is a more unifying statement than its Barstool Sports roots suggest. Yes, <\/b>the shirtless sickos have been predominantly White and male. And, yes, their chants at times have become vulgar, including aggressively yelling at women to lose their tops.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that doesn\u2019t happen a lot. More than anything, this is a bonding activity,\u201d he says. \u201cA stress reliever with your bros.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least it was when he started showing up to games in June. Back then, there\u2019d be a few rows of participants by the fifth inning nearly every night, a mix of ad hoc participants loosened by pricey tallboys and those who\u2019d planned ahead on Reddit or Facebook. Happy to feel connected in a \u201cgeneration of isolation,\u201d given he works from home like so many, he kept showing up. And he keeps showing up. It just happens that he\u2019s mostly alone here now, too.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Nationals fans, in July. (Brad Mills\/Imagn Images\/Reuters Connect)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

As the Nationals are working on blowing another early lead, this time in the seventh, he\u2019s going on five innings in the sun. Exasperation bubbling, a mulleted teenager, Jackson Robbins, joins him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow long have you been up here, man?\u201d the 13-year-old asks. He sizes up Horan through his pink Pit Viper sunglasses and snickers. Even he can see what Horan has going isn\u2019t a tan.<\/p>

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\u201cCouple hours,\u201d he responds. \u201cYou planning to stay?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNah, I honestly saw you and wanted to see what you were doing,\u201d he says. His mom told him he could take a lap around the park.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou okay, dude?\u201d the kid asks before getting up.<\/p>\n

Adia Benton is a cultural anthropologist at Northwestern University. While she researches significantly more pertinent societal issues than those that predominantly feature chest hair, she also examines social trends in the sporting industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this is just sad,\u201d she says. \u201cNaturally, it depends on how much teams are willing to stoke it. So, as can be the case, a trend like this will reach a slow end when teams and broadcasters become less interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horan made it on the Nationals\u2019 jumbotron a handful of times in June. But in recent weeks, he\u2019s felt more like a rogue than a contributor to stadium festivities.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
Phillies fans, in May. (Chris Szagola\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cYou\u2019d think this might jump again in the postseason,\u201d Benton wonders aloud. \u201cBut, truthfully, this is probably not something that escapes this year. \u2026 Which is sad because there\u2019s probably a community of men \u2014 albeit, a small one \u2014 who actually were getting something from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Nationals trailing by four runs in the bottom of the eighth, Horan places his battered, faded AC\/DC shirt over his stomach as a shield. As Horan reclines gingerly into the navy seat that\u2019s been cooking in the 87-degree rays, two more middle-aged men wander up the steps.<\/p>\n

They exchange glances, and Horan once more rises as the pair discard their polos. When they learned their boss wasn\u2019t coming into the office, they left early. (They declined to share their identities to avoid discipline from said boss.)<\/p>\n

Tarp-less, the men discuss their work lives and the trade deadline. Yet when the Nationals only score one in the eighth, the pair gather their belongings and wander away.<\/p>\n

Horan remains standing, looking toward a promotion across the stadium that reads \u201cPOV YOU\u2019RE AT NATS PARK.\u201d Underneath it, there\u2019s a photo of the topless guys of yester-month.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He could use his sunscreen, he thinks as he sits. But he lost it after Tuesday\u2019s game. Now he\u2019s tinting his skin to match the Nats\u2019 color scheme. And while the final batter, James Wood, grounds out<\/a>, Horan is scrolling on his phone to see if the Harris Teeter a few blocks over stocks aloe vera.<\/p>

Read more Nationals lose James Wood to oblique strain, then fall meekly to Phillies<\/a><\/p>\n

It was, in fact, out.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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