Hey BoSox fans. What's the deal with the scrutty batting helmets and dirty hats?

[devilgrrl]

:wtf: is that? Those players are paid a lot of money - why do they look like a bunch of sand lot punks? What? Is all that filth on Manny Ramirez's helmet suppose to intimidate the opposing team? You tell me.

[IndianaJones]

1. huge payroll...no money for equipment? nt.

[D-U-D-E]

2. the .500 avg in the postseason does the intimidation

they're ballplayers, clean uniform=bench jockey

[billyoc]

3. That's a special sticky substance they can rub their hands on to improve the grip

on their bloated paychecks. :smoke:

[WCGreen]

4. Back in the mid 90's, Jim Thome started that look with the Cleveland

Indians...

Manny came up while Thome played there and they because friends...

Manny picked up the tradition...

It was a get back to basic type of thing...

[Orsino]

5. "Let me speak proudly...

...tell the constable
We are but warriors for the working-day;
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field;
There's not a piece of feather in our host--
Good argument, I hope, we will not fly--
And time hath worn us into slovenry:
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim;
And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes, or they will pluck
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads
And turn them out of service."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z399i_PksfU

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. This thread gives me sufficient pretext to post this celebratory video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2boHFAZd7S8

I believe the stuff is pine tar, I'll take the other poster's word that it originated with Thome, I noticed it was big with the 2003 and 2004 versions of the Red Sox.

[graywarrior]

7. So their fans can relate to them.

Ever hang out in a local Boston bar or drive through Southie? *snort*

[Ellen Forradalom]

8. Because they are sand lot punks

This is the World Series, not the Oscars.

[SoxFan]

9. Pine Tar for Dirt Dogs

It's pine tar, sticky stuff that helps your grip. Manny's been using it at least since he came to Boston in 2001. Trot Nixon also slathered his helmet in the stuff (and still does with Cleveland).

[devilgrrl]

10. Thank you everyone for your responses. I understand but still think it's unsightly & unprofessional.

but that's just me. :hide:

It reminds me of Fred Biletnikoff

[Oeditpus Rex]

11. That wasn't just dirt on Freddie's unie, y'know

Still, he wasn't in the same stickum league as Lester Hayes.

[devilgrrl]

12. Yes I know it's stickum - and it looked like he had poo spread all over him too!

Just like the pine tar gunk on the BoSox batting helmets and dirty hats. :+

[Oeditpus Rex]

13. Makes 'em look like they came to play ball

and not be in a fashion show. :)



This thread makes me think of a Giants' third baseman of some 35 years ago: Alan Mitchell Edward George Patrick Henry Gallagher, or "Dirty Al." Dude was a gamer.