MLB Bans Players From Hazing Rookies by Making Them Dress Up as Women or Wear Offensive Costumes

Major League Baseball will no longer allow players to haze rookies by making them dress up as women or wear potentially offensive costumes.

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According to the Associated Press, Major League Baseball will no longer allow what they call "offensive hazing," which means you'll never again get the opportunity to see a rookie put on a wig and stuff balloons in his shirt to impress a clubhouse full of veterans:

The new rule is part of the league's effort to reduce "hazing" and "bullying" and it will ban "requiring, coercing, or encouraging" players from "dressing up as women or wearing costumes that may be offensive to individuals based on their race, sex, nationality, age, sexual orientation, gender identify, or other characteristic."

MLB Vice President Paul Mifsud said that optics were a big part of the problem. "In light of social media, which in our view sort of unfortunately publicized a lot of the dressing up of the players...those kind of things which in our view were insensitive and potentially offensive to a number of groups [were banned]," Mifsud said. "There's lots of pictures of baseball players dressed up as Disney princesses."

He also talked about how MLB is trying to be proactive before the hazing becomes problematic. "Although it hasn't happened, you could sort of see how like someone might even dress up in black face and say, 'Oh, no, we were just dressing up,'" he said. "We've also understood that a number of players have complained about it."

As part of MLB's new Collective Bargaining Agreement, the players' union has decided not to contest the hazing rule because, believe it or not, they probably have more important issues to negotiate.

Also banned is making players "consume alcoholic beverages or any other kind of drug, or requiring the ingestion of an undesirable or unwanted substance (food, drink, concoction)."

MLB hasn't banned all hazing, though. Players will still be allowed to do things like force rookies to bring coffee for veterans. They will also be allowed to force them to dress up, as long as they choose costumes that are appropriate. But for the time being, you'll no longer see any MLB players dressed up as Disney princesses.

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