PETA Wants Us To Start Calling the Bullpen "The Arm Barn"

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“Bullpen” refers to the area of a “bull’s pen” where bulls are held before they are slaughtered—it’s a word with speciesist roots & we can do better than that.

Switching to “arm barn” would be a home run for baseball fans, players, and animals ?⚾️ pic.twitter.com/2FzSpDG9mQ

— Arm Barn (@peta) October 28, 2021

My evolution towards hashtag good guy-dom didn't happen overnight; I used to be a piece of shit. If this story had come out in 2016-18, there's a great chance my blog would be full of anger and vitriol. With 30 around the corner and legitimate issues that truly matter, like avoiding fascism and saving the planet from catching on fire, I'm not wasting my energy getting all worked up over this blatant "don't forget about us" story.

PETA has been causing headaches long before I was born and will long after my heart explodes. They've been trying to cancel everything that doesn't give animals constitutional rights since 1980. They're trying to hijack the World Series for some clicks and donations, and I refuse to fall into their trap. These are the same people who want us to stop using phrases like "kill two birds with one stone" because it encourages violence against animals as if there's a bunch of bird murderers with bags of rocks littering the globe inspired by idioms.

I still don't fuck with what a lot of political correctness represents (fake outrage with no actual change), but I have become much more understanding and progressive with my thoughts about language. Some changes are 10,000% for the better. There was a time in my life where I called everything I didn't like "gay" and threw around f@gs like I was Phillip Morris; now I'll call out my friends when they use that slur. I still think there needs to be a single-tense version of they/them, but I 100% support people's right to identify how they feel inside, so I don't sweat the perceived poor/awkward grammar (plus, have you read my blog? I can't talk shit).

​So I get why PETA would want to "strike out the word bullpen" I just think this suggestion is ridiculous, especially when their rationale might not be 100% accurate. I'm not saying their reasoning is entirely invalid, but when the official historian of Major League Baseball is dropping knowledge bombs about the origin of the term, you better duck and cover (or should I not use the word "duck?"). ​

This is exceedingly stupid. A bullpen was the name for an enclosure to rope off fans on field; it was also the name of a frontier ballgame (see below). The term bullpen, signifying the foul areas in back of first and third bases, was in use as early as 1877. pic.twitter.com/ufUZZ78eA7

— John Thorn (@thorn_john) October 28, 2021

Plus, aren't animals not treated ethically in barns? This feels like a six in one hand, a half dozen in the other situation. 

I think that's the problem with a lot of these rebrands, the new versions fucking suck. Like if you want to get rid of the term "Indians" for a baseball team, whatever, I'm not wasting my time fighting that. But you have to admit Guardians is a terrible team name replacement (I stand with the roller derby team. I hope they win, and the baseball team switches to Spiders as they should've in the first place).

Sorry, but I'll never give a fuck about how bulls are treated in a million years. Can't do it *Mike Singletary voice*. The bullpen is here to stay, but I will totes start using this term as well.

P.S.


​This is fucking hilarious.

This makes me like bullpen even more. Not to be defiant against PETA, but I just like the metaphor of scared pitchers being penned up only to get slaughtered on the field.

— sam (@shamu_sam) October 28, 2021