Cubs Put Dress in Rookie Dress-Up, Have a Little Fun with Hazing

The first thought that ran through my mind upon seeing the recent group shot of the Cubs rookies was, “Dude, Kris Bryant is huge.” I mean, he’s a full head taller than Javier Baez. Something else was striking about the photo, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

Wait…are they? Yeah…they are. Princess drag is the new market inefficiency, yo. The photo above comes courtesy of Kyle Schwarber’s Twitter feed, but the young catcher popped up in his elder teammate’s timeline as well:

Hey, I have those socks! And that bow! But as much as I love gingham, I could do without seeing the War Bear dressed in it again anytime soon.

You know what I don’t mind seeing though? The genuine smiles on these guys’ faces. Mild rookie hazing like this goes on all the time and it usually entails new guys wearing pink backpacks or going for coffee runs in full uniforms and so forth. Maybe I’m just naive or ignorant, but I don’t see this as your garden-variety shaming via gender reversal.

My friend (I think — hope — I’ve earned the right to call her that) Julie DiCaro recently authored an eye-opening story about the treatment of women in sports media, much of which is rooted in a misplaced “meninist” agenda. I’m not trying to re-tread any of that ground, but I do want to point it out for a bit of context. When it comes to sports, women are (inappropriately) viewed by many as inferior, so to force rookies to wear pink or — gasp! — dresses would be to make them seem less substantial, less masculine.

Perception is, after all, reality. But none of the guys in the pictures above appear to be ashamed by their outfits, which are as much a continuation of Joe Maddon’s road-trip antics as anything. These guys look like they’re owning it, having a good time. Kinda like the rest of us, huh? This Cubs team is young and more than a little goofy and it’s unlike anything we’ve seen from the organization in the past.

Now maybe they can see about trading those tiaras for a crown.

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