DETROIT – Tuesday night at Comerica Park, after a thunderstorm rolled through downtown Detroit for a second consecutive afternoon, a large group of mainly male Tigers fans decided to get some relief from the humid air by taking their shirts off and waving them above their heads.
You read that right. In the bottom of the eighth inning with the Tigers trailing by a run to the Cleveland Guardians, at least a hundred (mostly) young people gathered in the upper deck sections overlooking right field, spinning their shirts above their head in a helicopter-like fashion.
The exuberant faithful grew by the pitch as the Detroit Sports Network broadcast cut to multiple camera angles showing the upper corner of the stadium.
Tigers fans are the latest to join the tarps off movement pic.twitter.com/xWcunW53S6
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) May 20, 2026
“The tarps off section is growing in a big way,” said play-by-play voice Jason Benetti as the Tigers rally to try and tie the game increased in intensity.
“Paws is up there! It’s going to be a little tough for Paws to join up in the shirtless activities. ”
Yes, even the beloved mascot was shown, not with his jersey off, however.
In the beginning faint cries of ‘Seven Nation Army’ could be heard, but as the half inning drew on, the chanting increased in volume. There was some crudeness as some of the chants were negatively directed towards the visiting team, but for the most part the phrase “Let’s Go Tigers” was loud enough to make you believe the home team could pull off a comeback.
This phenomenon was started by Cardinals fans at Busch Stadium in St. Louis when the raucous group of fans rooted their team on to a walk-off win on May 16th. It not only went viral on social media but also gained the attention of the Cardinals manager, as he gifted a select portion of the group to join the clubhouse postgame celebration.
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said he would "do whatever I need to do" to get the shirtless fans that cheered them to an 11th inning walk-off back to more games Friday.
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) May 16, 2026
Now, he's bought all the tickets for the "Tarps Off" section for today's and tomorrow's game.
(🎥 via @KMOV) pic.twitter.com/F7ReH5wNef
Unfortunately, the Tigers were not as lucky and stranded a pair of runners in both the eighth and ninth innings in a 4-3 loss their division rivals.
Detroit has dropped seven of their last eight games, 12 of their last 14, and are currently 7.5 games behind the Guardians for first place in the American League Central Division.
The Tigers have two more games remaining in their four game set with Cleveland, with game three coming Wednesday at 6:40 PM ET.