Tarps Off is taking over Major League Baseball and the Boomers are losing their minds over it

Tarps Off is sweeping through Major League ballparks and I need every person over the age of 55 to take a deep breath, close their mouth, and accept that this is just guys being dudes at a baseball game.

Fans at Rays, Mariners, and Tigers games have all joined the movement. The trend is everywhere now and the outrage from the older generation is more entertaining than the actual tarps-off footage itself.

Even Phillies fans got in on it last night. During the 4-1 loss to the Reds at Citizens Bank Park, a group of fans went tarps off in the pouring rain while the game was already out of reach.

The Phillies were losing. It was raining. Chase Burns had just struck out nine of our guys and the offense looked lifeless all night. What else were you supposed to do? Sit there soaking wet and miserable watching the Phillies lose in the rain? Or rip your shirt off, swing it over your head, and have the best time of your life while the game plays out in the background? Easy choice.

Phillies Fans Go Tarps Off at Citizens Bank Park

Fans are going tarps off in Philly as the rain comes pouring down pic.twitter.com/VlP0aB7TRa

— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 20, 2026

Chase Burns strikes out nine, Phillies lose to the Reds 4-1 in South Philly >>

While we’re at it, I’ve been saying for years that Phillies fans need to implement “The Marshland” out in left-center field. A dedicated section where fans dress up as animals found in a marsh. Herons, frogs, turtles, alligators, ducks, whatever you want.

A swamp-themed mob of lunatics in animal costumes cheering on Brandon Marsh every time he steps to the plate. The man leads the majors in batting average and looks like he crawled out of a wetland to play left field for the Philadelphia Phillies.

He deserves a section of fans dressed as marsh creatures losing their minds every time he gets a hit. That’s the real golden ticket for this fanbase. The Marshland would be the most iconic fan section in all of baseball within a month. No other stadium would have anything close to it.

But we’ll go with tarps off for now. Baby steps.

So yeah, those guys made the right call. The game was over. The rain was coming down. Might as well make the most of it. That’s the beauty of tarps off. When the product on the field stinks, the fans create their own entertainment.

Tarps Off Started in College Football and Spread Like Wildfire

The trend started in college football in 2025 when some kid at Oklahoma State accepted a $10 bet from his sister to stand alone in an empty section of Boone Pickens Stadium, shirtless, waving his shirt in circles over his head.

Oklahoma State was 1-11 that year and fired Mike Gundy midway through the season. The fans had nothing to root for so they created something worth watching. It spread across the Oklahoma State fanbase that same day, then to other college football stadiums, then to Indiana during their national championship run, then to an outdoor hockey game at Penn State’s Beaver Stadium in freezing January weather.

Now it’s in Major League Baseball. Young guys at ballparks across the country going shirtless in the stands and waving their shirts around while the crowd loses it. It’s harmless. It’s fun. It’s contagious. Every stadium that gets a tarps-off section going ends up with the loudest, most engaged fans in the building.

That’s what every franchise in professional sports should want from their fanbase.

The Boomers Cannot Handle It

I’ve been watching the reaction from the older generation and it’s genuinely hilarious. They cannot process what they’re seeing. Shirtless men at a baseball game having fun? In their day, you wore a collared shirt to the ballpark and sat quietly in your seat with your hands folded in your lap.

You certainly didn’t remove your clothing and swing it over your head like some kind of animal. The decline of western civilization is apparently happening one bare chest at a time.

These are the same people who destroyed the housing market, loaded the national debt to the ceiling, poisoned the economy for anyone under 40, made it impossible for young people to afford a home or start a family at a reasonable age, and then sit in their paid-off houses complaining about kids taking their shirts off at a Tigers game.

You ruined the country and the future for America’s youth but tarps off is where you draw the line? That’s the hill you’re dying on? Shirtless 22-year-olds at a baseball game?

Get over it. You don’t have to understand it. You just have to stop complaining about it.

Am I Going Tarps Off?

Probably not. My tarps-off days are behind me if they ever existed at all. If I was 18 to 24 and hammered at a baseball game? Without question. The shirt is off and spinning before the third inning. But those days are gone and my current physique is not suited for public display at a Major League ballpark.

Back in my day we didn’t go tarps off. We’d pull up to Jetro at the crack of dawn with whatever beers we could steal from our parents’ fridge, drink all day in the parking lot, and stumble to the box office at Citizens Bank Park for cheap upper-deck tickets.

Toss in a Skoal mint pouch and spin out while the pre-World Series Phillies still sucked. The world was simpler. There were no cell phones recording everything. We weren’t trying to go viral because viral didn’t exist. The stupid things we did at 19 disappeared into the night and nobody ever saw evidence of them again. Thank god.

Nowadays kids want to go tarps off, get picked up by a broadcast camera or a media account, post the clip, and tell their friends. That’s how this generation operates. Everything is content. Everything is shared.

Going tarps off at the Phillies game in the rain and having Jomboy post the clip is the 2026 version of what we were doing at Jetro in 2008. Different execution. Same energy. Young people at a sporting event doing something dumb and fun because they can.

Let Guys Be Dudes

Nobody is getting hurt. Nobody is starting fights. Nobody is throwing things on the field. Guys are standing in their section, shirtless, swinging their shirts, having the time of their lives. If that bothers you, the problem is you. If you can’t enjoy watching a section of fans go absolutely insane at a baseball game because they took their shirts off, you’ve forgotten what being young at a sporting event feels like.

The Phillies fans who went tarps off in the rain last night during a loss to the Reds understood the assignment better than anyone. The game was over. The weather was miserable. Instead of leaving early or sitting there in silence, they created the most memorable moment of the night. That section was having more fun than anyone else in the stadium including the guys in the Reds’ dugout who just won the game.

Tarps off forever. Let guys be dudes. The boomers can stay mad about it.

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