As Red Sox fans probably noticed through Boston’s first four games of the season, the club is celebrating home runs differently in 2023 than in years past.
In the most recent campaigns, Red Sox home run hitters were taken on a joy ride through the dugout after rounding the bases. The laundry cart has been nowhere to be found this season, though, and it was replaced by inflatable dumbbells. Those props were inspired by Red Sox newcomer Maastaka Yoshida, who earned the nickname “Macho Man” during his Nippon Professional Baseball tenure.
It remains to be seen if the celebratory curls will stick with the Sox. But now that the mastermind of the laundry cart victory lap has left Boston, the Red Sox are putting it to bed.
“I think that’s (Yoshida’s) thing, the whole ‘Macho Man,'” Christian Arroyo recently told reporters, per MassLive. “That’s what they’re trying to portray him as. So we’ve got the dumbbells. (Justin Turner) had the novel idea of, ‘Let’s do it after a homer.’ I think after (Kevin) Plawecki moved on, we retired the cart. It had a great run. Lot of fun with it. But I think the dumbbells might be the new thing. A couple pumps, walk through the dugout, cheer with the boys.”
Tuesday night’s loss to the Pirates at Fenway Park marked the first time the Red Sox didn’t have a chance to bust out the dumbbells on the young season. Boston will try to get some pumps in Wednesday afternoon when it wraps up its three-game series with Pittsburgh.
NESN’s full coverage of the finale begins at 12:30 p.m. ET.
