People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals’ (PETA), usually takes a complaint about animal cruelty with a grain of salt. However, if you’re having a bad day, PETA’s new idiotic complaint should at least make you laugh.
The newest gripe in the ever-important war on animal cruelty (winks sarcastically) is taking the fight to MLB, where members of PETA have petitioned that the term “bullpen” – which is the designated area in which relief pitchers warm-up before entering games – be changed to “arm barn” because the current term apparently mocks “the misery of sensitive animals.”
First, it is the most lame nickname that you could think of. “Arm Barn” sounds more like a place where a bunch of stocky men would go for an arm-wrestling tournament, which definitely is not what happens in baseball.
Bullpen does not dehumanize animals. PETA claimed bullpen, which is where cows are kept before their slaughter, somehow diminishes pitchers’ talents (by using them as a comparison to cows, I suppose). People are less sensitive to the suffering of cows.
Although emotions like these are often persuasive in convincing people to believe an argument. A simple historical look will reveal that the history of bullpen does not support this claim.
O.P. Caylor, Cincinnati Enquirer reporter, made the first reference to bullpen in May 1877. Caylor wrote this game recap:
The bullpen at Cincinnati has been relegated to a ‘three-for-a-quarter crowd’. “The cheap crowd now comes in on the second inning at a discounted rate to the bleacher board just north the former pavilion.
Since that first mention, it has evolved in its meaning and become as commonplace a term in baseball as “home run.” But never once was it used to demean animals or devalue pitching talent. In the 90s and 2000s, no one in New York believed Mariano Rivera’s talent was diminished simply because he was from the bullpen. It’s not true!
There is nothing wrong with the term “bullpen,” and anyone who thinks so is idiotic.
PETA might instead of complaining about sports terms, they should be focusing their attention on the way Dr. Fauci killed and treated dozens of beagle dogs for strange science experiments.
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