Washington Nationals haze rookies with pink backpack
The Washington Nationals are now hazing their rookie bullpen pitchers with pink and purple backpacks.
Hazing rookie pitchers is a tradition like none other in baseball. The forcing of new pitchers to earn their stripes in silly ways like carrying snacks or wearing children’s backpacks to the bullpen is a fun and harmless thing each team does.
The Washington Nationals pitchers were caught on camera on Sunday as the most recent victims of this harmless hazing tactic sporting some feminine colored pink and purple backpacks.
If you didn’t catch who it was ever so gracefully wearing the pink and purple snack pack over their shoulders, Blake Treinen, Matt Grace, and Rafael Martin were all caught with the backpacks on.
While some may think hazing is an activity that should be absent in a professional sports organization, this is more or less harmless and just a way for the veterans to light heartedly make the young players go through a little turmoil before they get welcomed to the ball club. No one gets hurt and the fans get to have a little laugh.
The MLB isn’t the only professional sports league that inspires a little hazing here and there. In the NFL, veteran players are known for making rookie’s carry their pads at training camp or making them buy dinners. One of the most famous occurrences of hazing in the NFL locker room came after Tim Tebow was drafted by the Denver Broncos. Because Tebow was an extremely successful quarterback in college at Florida, the Bronco’s players made the man sport what seemed to be a monk’s haircut during a workout.
Hazing can obviously get out of hand. But in the case of the Nationals in the MLB and Tebow in the NFL, it is completely harmless and just for a few laughs. I applaud the Nationals for making their rookie’s earn their stripes in the ball club. They wouldn’t want anyone getting too cocky as a rookie. So what better way to challenge their masculinity than a bright pink backpack with a bunch of snacks in it? I can’t seem to think of any.
H/T: FTW
More from MLB
- Braves-Red Sox start time: Braves rain delay in Boston on July 25
- Yankees: Aaron Boone gives optimistic return date for Aaron Judge
- MLB Rumors: Yankees-Phillies trade showdown, Mariners swoop, India goes to Seattle
- MLB Rumors: Insider names Braves’ most likely player to be traded
- MLB Trade Grades: Dodgers reunite with familiar face in Red Sox deal