Update: From Rob Rains at the ballpark: The Stephen F. Austin team will be at the game tonight and will be in section 109, which are the seats above the Cardinals bullpen. We are told from the Cardinals that any fan who already had seats in that section, and doesn’t want to participate can request to be moved to different seats.
The Cardinals posted this on social media: The Tarps Off Crew will be throwing out the first pitch prior to tonight’s game! For tickets CLICK HERE.
Original post:
This whole “tarps off” shirtless fans thing was a lot of fun over the weekend, but some people are asking why the phrase “tarps off?”
A quick Google check shows it’s a phrase that has long been in effect. “Tarps off” is a slang term that refers to taking off one’s shirt or jersey to celebrate, show off, or hype up a crowd.It has been a thing for a while in hockey and also in soccer. There’s also a Scottish phrase “taps aff”–meaning “tops off”, which is traditionally shouted when the weather gets warm, so that may have something to do with the phrase “tarps off” in conjunction with taking shirts off at sports events. Soccer fans all over the world use the tarps off chant during exciting times in a game to get the crowd amped up.
The crowd at Busch Stadium was sure amped up over the weekend.
The Stephen F. Austin Club Baseball team was in Alton, Ill., for the D2 Baseball World Series. The team decided to come over for a Cardinals game Friday night and according to several media interviews one of the players, Caleb Cummings, suggested, “let’s take our shirts off!”
Some wanted to do it and some didn’t and then one player, Bryce Bradford just ripped off his shirt and the others followed.
Bradford was interviewed during the game and. told Jim Hayes on Cardinals.tv, “I just said, ‘Screw it! I’ll do it!”– and a slogan was born.
As he took his shirt off, the whole group followed and then others from around the stadium wanted to get in on the fun and it was almost like a flash mob scene. All the men were waving their shirts around and yelling. It was creating a big buzz of enthusiasm and the players were feeding off of it.
Oli Marmol spotted them and loved the enthusiasm.
He mentioned it in his post-game interview and said he would pay for a group if they want to come back– and he was good for it.
The next two days Marmol bought 1,000 tickets which they called “tarps off” tickets for each day in the right field loge area and sure enough it happened again– both days.
The SF Austin team had a great time while in St. Louis with the buzz that surrounded them. They were guests at The Rawlings Experience with Rawlings posting their photo on social media: “TARPS OFF STL!The Stephen F. Austin University baseball team behind the “Tarps Off” take over at Busch Stadium dropped by the Experience! Thanks for hanging out and bringing the good vibes to STL!”
The fans also loved the good vibes they brought. On Saturday, the Stephen F. Austin team won their game in Alton, and then headed back to Busch and joined the crowd that had already assembled, shirts off. There was another big group, inspired by them, waving their shirts and the players and coaches were signaling to them that they saw them and liked it.
The Cardinals invited the team into the locker room and they were all so humble and appreciative, saying it was a surreal experience and they were so appreciative to the Cardinals. To their surprise, the Cardinals wanted to get photos with THEM– tarps off.
Sunday ended up bursting both bubbles: the Stephen F. Austin team did not win their championship and the Cardinals did not win that game, but both teams and the Cardinals fans know that something special happened to finally get Cardinals fans back to the ballpark with enthusiasm.
Will Busch Stadium continue to have a tarps off group at upcoming games? Well they will be tonight.
Fans are looking to buy tickets in the right field loge area so they can get in on the fun.
But what about the women or men who don’t want to take their shirts off? We have all of them in mind also: tee shirts and rally towels so they can join the fun. These are actually unisex shirts so anyone who doesn’t want to take their shirt off but wants to get in on the fun can wear them.
We also have shirts specifically designed for the women.
The women’s shirts say #TarpsOn.
These shirts are exclusive to our website, but we are not the only ones coming up with shirts and other merch ideas, and we certainly don’t intend to be. The more enthusiasm the better. It falls right in with our “Do Good. Have fFn. Watch Baseball” website theme.
We even saw that Foco is coming out with a Fredbird bobble head where Fredbird has taken off his shirt and is waving it. To see about that CLICK HERE.
We are also looking forward to if the Cardinals come up with a shirt and we’ll promote that if they do.
We wouldn’t be surprised if the Cardinals do some sort of promotion around it in the near future, so stay tuned.
We’ve been saying since Spring Training that this was going to be an exciting season to watch. This weekend proved that.
To see our #TarpsOff designs in our store: CLICK HERE.
To buy tickets to the upcoming Cardinals games: CLICK HERE.
For Homestand Highlights: CLICK HERE
