Nothing sounds less manly than a professional baseball player wearing women’s underwear. More than a few testosterone-laden-eyebrows were raised when Yankees star Jason Giambi, and other members of the team, revealed they like to wear a golden lamé thong during games.
To make things even more uncomfortable, they don’t just wear any old pair of panties; they share the same thong.
The Yankee slugger revealed Friday he slips on a gold lamé thong with a flame-line waistband when he’s trying to get out of a hitting slump – and he’s shared it with his teammates.
“It works every time,” Giambi told the Daily News after his secret was outed on Portfolio.com.
Derek Jeter agreed that Giambi’s thong works, although “it’s so uncomfortable running around the bases.”
“I had it over my shorts and stuff,” he said. “I was 0-for-32 and I hit a homer on the first pitch. That’s the only time I’ve ever worn it.”
Johnny Damon also admitted donning the golden panties “probably three times.”
“I may need to wear it again soon,” said Damon, who is batting a mediocre .255.
To everyone on the outside, this good-luck ritual seems odd. Stop and think about it for a minute and it would probably be more odd if these guys didn’t have these kind of wacky traditions.
A pro-baseball team is a lot like a traveling Frat-House. These guys spend long weeks training together, they are on the road for more than 80 games in a season, and they experience some of the most emotional moments of their lives playing ball together. These thong-wearing Yankees, aren’t just teammates; they are an extended family. When one guy retires, what is the first thing he talks about? Retiring athletes, like football’s Brett Favre, don’t talk so much about the competition, or missing the travel, they don’t miss the physical exertion or even the the fans. What these guys miss the most is the genuine camaraderie of being on a team that will never be replaced. When you think about such a close-knit group, the idea of sharing golden undies is not unusual–it only seems that way to people on the outside.
The church too has a lot of Her own traditions that seem just as odd to the outside world. Paul warned the church at Corinth that the improper use of Tongues could cause outsiders confusion about the Gospel. The early church was
accused of hosting incestuous orgies by Roman outsiders because they did not understand the practice of Love Feasts. Some accused the Christians of cannibalism because they ate the “body and blood” of Christ.
The Church today is going through a dramatic revolution. Some people are challenging everything that does not seem relevant to post-modern culture. Some individuals have even thrown out the traditions of water baptism and communion for fear that they will turn people off to Jesus.
In our effort to make the church culturally relevant, we should not allow fear of criticism from the outside world to determine the traditions we value. As followers of Jesus, the church will embrace traditions that seem odd, or even offend, those outside our Faith. If a church shares the kind of friendship demonstrated by the Yankees, She will have traditions that seem wacky to those outside our fraternity of Faith. For every person who is turned off, there will be those who are drawn to the the rituals that make the church a unique family. Instead of throwing out all the things that make our local congregations unique, let’s keep doing church in a Golden Thong!
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