MLB ‘Tarps off’ trend, explained: Why baseball fans are going shirtless and how craze started

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MLB ‘Tarps off’ trend, explained: Why baseball fans are going shirtless and how craze started originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Baseball season is long. A 162-game schedule is a grind for both players and fans. You have to find a way to keep things interesting over the course of six months, and a few MLB fan bases have certainly found a way to do that this season.

Sections of fans are going “tarps off,” taking off their shirts, waving them around and attempting to rally their team from the stands.

It’s no surprise that the trend began in mid-May rather than early April. As passionate as some fans might be, you won’t find many who want to go shirtless in 50-degree weather. With temperatures rising and summer approaching, you could see more and more shirtless fans at MLB stadiums.

What started the trend? Here’s what you need to know.

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Why are baseball fans going shirtless?

While going shirtless on a hot day isn’t a bad move, the weather isn’t the primary reason some fans are leaning into the “tarps off” trend. Baseball fans will do anything to spark a rally, from rally cap superstitions to the Nationals’ “Baby Shark” trend in 2019, and “tarps off” is the latest iteration of a superstition aimed at firing up a team.

The trend began in an effort by fans to rally the Cardinals to a walk-off win. Had St. Louis not come through, the trend might have ended right there. Instead, a walk-off victory over the Royals left fans feeling more emboldened than ever. 

Here are more details on the trend and its origin. 

What is ‘tarps off’?

Everyone loves when the tarp comes off the field after a rain delay, but that isn’t what “tarps off” refers to. Instead, “tarps off” is all about the trend of MLB fans removing their shirts and waving them around in an attempt to rally their team.

The key element of “tarps off” is that it isn’t an individual exercise. Shirtless fans gather together in a section, or multiple sections, and wave their shirts around much the way fans would wave a rally towel in the postseason.

One more requirement is to get loud. The trend doesn’t have the same effect if everyone waves their shirts around in silence. Fans gather together, take off their shirts, wave them around and make noise, all in an attempt to bring some energy and rally their team.

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Who started ‘tarps off trend’?

In baseball, the trend began at Busch Stadium when shirtless Cardinals fans banded together in a pair of sections in hopes of willing their team to a walk-off win on May 15. A Stephen F. Austin University club baseball team is credited with starting the trend, and fans from across the stadium joined in after noticing the fun.

The Cardinals won on an 11th inning walk-off single by Yohel Pozo, so the team naturally leaned into the trend. St. Louis hosted the Stephen F. Austin club baseball team on Tuesday, letting a shirtless member of the team throw out the first pitch, and the Cardinals announced a day later that a designated section of the right field bleachers would become a “dedicated high-energy fan section.”

The trend didn’t exactly start in baseball, though. It truly began in college football in 2025, when one Oklahoma State was dared to go to an empty section of the stadium and take off his shirt. More fans started joining him, and the “tarps off” trend became a theme, often at sparsely attended games hosted by bad teams. Oklahoma State went 1-11 in 2025 and had already fired coach Mike Gundy by the time the trend started.

Fans at Wisconsin, UCLA, Virginia Tech and more soon joined in on the fun at their own home games.

MLB’s version of the trend starting with the Cardinals is a break from the idea that it has to be limited to bad teams. St. Louis was seven games over .500 when the shirts first came off on May 15, and fans of the MLB-leading Rays joined in on the trend to prove any fan base can get involved.

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Other fan bases that have done ‘tarps off’

Rays

The Rays aren’t necessarily known for an intimidating crowd, but as they surge to the best record in baseball, some fans are getting invested: 

Mariners

Mariners fans brought the energy with three sections of shirtless fans on May 19:

Tigers

A small but mighty group of shirtless fans banded together at Comerica Park in Detroit.

Angels

Angels fans don’t have quite as much to celebrate, but they did get a walk-off win out of this effort despite being no-hit into the ninth inning.

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