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MLB officially bans rookie player hazing, Sandy Alderson on board (Report)

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The MLB has officially banned all rookie player hazing, joining a growing national trend in sports to stop the once traditional act.

As part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Player’s Union, the league has officially banned teams and their players from engaging in any sort of hazing activity, according to The Associated Press.

The new Anti-Hazing and Anti-Bullying Policy extends to rookie players being told to dress up as women, including, but not limited to, female superheroes, cheerleaders and Hooter’s girls.

The actual policy, as in The Associated Press report, calls for an end to “requiring, coercing, or encouraging” players from “dressing up as women or wearing costumes that may be offensive to individuals based on their race, sex, nationality, age, sexual orientation, gender identify or other characteristic.”

Less than a day after reports of the new rule came about, New York Mets general manager Sandy Alderson has already expressed his support for the change.

“It’s something I’m very concerned about as a potential issue,” Alderson said to reporters at the Mets Kids Holiday Party. “I’ve seen it in the military. For all the camaraderie it’s supposed to promote, it’s divisive and I think it undercuts morale. So you’ve got to be very careful.”

Alderson was an officer in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, and found during his time there that hazing was a very similar tradition to that of a typical baseball team.

“What’s my experience? It’s not as a player,” Alderson said. “It’s as somebody who was in the military, somebody who was in a fraternity. We all experience that at different levels. Is it constructive? Is it useful? Is it juvenile? It’s probably juvenile. It’s probably not useful or constructive in too many ways.”

Chris recently graduated with a Journalism degree from Montclair State University. Baseball is his love and he hopes to bring back some of the old-school popularity to the game. Chris Thompson covers the NY Jets and NY Mets for Elite Sports NY. You can interact with him on Twitter @Time2Topher.