Baseball is a sport steeped in tradition and news that one of the sport's more interesting rites of passage, rookie dress-up, will now be policed by the league has rankled some players.
"I believe it's team building and I believe that it can be done in a way that is sensitive but allows that team building process to unfold," veteran Los Angeles Angels reliever Huston Street said in an opinion piece written for the Associated Press.
Part of Major League Baseball's new Anti-Hazing and Anti-Bullying Policy prohibits teams from "requiring, coercing or encouraging" players to engage in activities that include "dressing up as women or wearing costumes that may be offensive to individuals based on their race, sex, nationality, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristic.