In the English language, the word “show” is used exclusively as a verb or noun, as in “Show me the money” or “What time is the show?” But rarely does the idiosyncratic world of professional baseball obey the simple limits of linguistic norms.
Case in point: in the Major League Baseball universe, “show” takes on an additional role… as an adjective.
Yes, there are uses of ball-specific verbs and nouns for “show” – “show bunt” means prepare for, well, bunt and, of course, “The Show.” is a nickname for Major League Baseball itself — but it is also common practice for a major player to describe an item, person, place, or action as “show.”
What exactly does this mean? It’s a little difficult to define.
“Show?” Marlins shortstop and two-time All-Star Tim Anderson pondered when asked to describe the word. “To be a show, it has to be ‘the it’. It has to be ‘that’. It has to be top of the line.”
“Top of the line,” echoed Phillies ace Zack Wheeler. “It’s like the big leagues: there’s no level above that. A little presumptuous.
“Something that is not standard, like special-special. Because it’s special to be on The Show,” Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber explained to Yahoo Sports, alluding to the term’s probably self-explanatory origin. The common way of referring to Major League Baseball as “The Show” went from an entity to a descriptor over time, helped by the existence of the video game “MLB: The Show.”
“Show” is an energy, a vibration that extends far beyond the playing field and into the abnormal lives that players are lucky enough to lead. It’s a recognition that the experience of being a big leaguer is unique and provides an unusually high-class lifestyle. It’s the appreciation of that lifestyle – anything from an extremely nice dinner to a well-coiffed hairstyle to an expensive pair of shoes or a police escort to the stadium. A well-assembled outfit, for example, is a show-off, as is a designer backpack.
Walk into the clubhouse with a Louis Vuitton backpack and a teammate is likely to take note of your new “show bag.”
“We actually call it ‘humping,’” Braves catcher and 12-year vet Travis d’Arnaud told Yahoo Sports. “Like a show bag. And so if you have a bag like I have, it’s a show bag. So this is a ‘shatchel’.”
“It’s like if you go to the Goyard store, then you buy the best bag they have,” Anderson explained. “This is a show.”
Anything related to travel is also a candidate for the badge. Big league players spend so much time on the road that they become accustomed to a certain level of accommodation, especially compared to the grind of the minor leagues. The buses with leather seats are a sight to behold, as are the charter planes with shared tables for playing cards.
“The Four Seasons is more of a show than Howard Johnson,” Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos said matter-of-factly.
The flashiest accommodation in baseball is the Post Oak in Uptown Houston, a luxurious five-star hotel situated in one of the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods. The Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel, California, and the JW Marriott in New York were also highly rated in terms of spectacle.
“That hotel in Houston is definitely a sight to behold. They got almost an entire residence there,” Anderson confirmed.
The least show hotel? “Pretty much anything in Cincinnati,” joked one National Leaguer.
But “show” it is bigger than any specific hotel. It’s the entire process of moving like a great player, elevated from the minor league lifestyle or the normality of traveling alone in the offseason.
“They carry my suitcase. They didn’t even allow me to carry a suitcase on the bus. This is a show,” said Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins.
Being on the road also allows for the highly popular “dinner show.”
“Steakhouse. Seafood tower. 30-ounce dry-aged bone-in,” said the Marlins’ aptly named Jake Burger. “You might not eat it all, and that’s okay.”
“You try to take as many people as you can and let the guys who make the money pay. Everyone can get whatever they want,” explained Schwarber, a money-maker and sponsor of many dinner shows.
“We’re going to expose everything – the best of everything,” Anderson said.
If it all seems a bit materialistic, well, yes. But Schwarber says “show” isn’t about being unnecessarily luxurious, but rather appreciating the finer things in life.
“You have so little time in this game and you put so much time and effort into what you do,” he said. “When you get off the field, you want to have positive experiences.”
What is not a “show”? An incomplete list would include the things you’d expect: the new Nike uniforms, playing at the Oakland Coliseum, not tipping, a bad mattress, an incomplete breakfast buffet, a dirty pair of shoes, a lost gear bag. It’s a variety of first-world problems, many of them worthy of the world’s smallest fiddle, but it’s also a reflection of life in the world’s best baseball league.
And while “show” is often used to describe the ancillary elements of life in the big leagues, it also encompasses on-field activities and behaviors. Essentially, “show” is any type of on-field behavior or equipment that is distinct from the minor league experience.
It’s the way Ronald Acuña Jr. appears after a slip or Bryce Harper’s nonchalant demeanor after a home run or how Fernando Tatís Jr. But it’s also an act as simple as leaving your equipment – helmets, batting gloves, arm pads – in the batter’s box to be retrieved by a bat boy after an inning-ending strikeout. Doing so at the lowest levels of baseball would earn a mountain of scorn; Doing it in the big leagues is just a show.
MLB helmets themselves are also inherently showy. High school, college and minor league players wear helmets with ear pads on both sides. But in the majors, almost all hitters — with the exception of Jed Lowry — wear single-brimmed helmets, a decidedly more spectacular look. When big leaguers play minor league rehab games while recovering from an injury, they or a big league clubhouse attendant typically makes sure the single-brimmed helmet joins them in Fresno, Bowie or Scranton.
“I hear it’s very BYOH — you know, bring your own helmet,” Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino said.
The difference in track type and quality between minors and majors is another example of spectacle. Major league belts are usually made of leather (dressier), while minor league and collegiate belts are often a stretchier, stretchier material.
“Hunter Dozier actually wore an elastic belt in the big ones because he thought it was more comfortable,” Pasquantino recalled. “That’s really quite a show – playing in the track you want.”
“Show” isn’t just what you eat, where you sleep or the price on your backpack. It’s how you position yourself among some of the best, richest and most successful athletes in the world. It is operating and thriving in the pressure cooker that is professional sports.
Marlins outfielder Jazz Chisholm put it perfectly: “It’s the show. It must be exquisite.
