Rookie hazing done right

Red Sox rookie Henry Owens watches the game with his mouth taped.

A beloved tradition in American sport, rookie hazing, can go very wrong, as when Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin was harassed to such an extent in 2013 that he contemplated suicide and eventually quit the sport.

But when striking the right tone, it can also be very funny. Boston Red Sox pitcher Henry Owens was this week subject to one of the latter instances of hazing, being taped to a pole inside the Red Sox dugout during a game against Philadelphia.

Owens' mouth was even covered at one point - and the 23-year-old should consider the treatment an honour, given it was also dished out to the great Pedro Martinez during the hall-of-famer's first season with the Red Sox in 1998.

Baseball is infamous for these sorts of pranks on first-year players - here are a few more in the last few seasons:

• Playing 162 games a season, baseball players rarely take too much time to meet and greet fans after the daily grind. But that changed for a pair of New York Yankees rookies in 2005 when, after a win over Toronto, Robinson Cano and Chien Ming Wang donned cheerleader outfits - replete with coloured pom poms - to mix and mingle with supporters outside the stadium.

• Making the pre-game stroll from the dugout to the bullpen is one monotonous part in the repetitive life of a relief pitcher. But Brandon Gomes' walk was brightened up before a Tampa Bay Rays game in 2011, needlessly sheltering himself in the domed stadium with a Dora the Explorer umbrella and lugging along a suitcase to match.

• Texas Rangers catcher Luis Martinez was made to wear a rather unflattering swimming costume as the team boarded a bus to begin the trip back to Arlington after a 2012 series in Los Angeles, outfitted in nothing but stars-and-stripes speedos, a floral swimming cap and bright pink floaties around his arms.