BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Orioles have a slew of water-themed celebrations.
The faucet.
The sprinkler.
And now, the "Homer Hose."
The team first debuted the celebration on April 10, breaking out a neon funnel attached to a long orange-and-black striped hose when slugger Ryan Mountcastle hit a homer against the A's.
It's the newest celebration in a series of water-themed festivities. Players who hit a single pretend to turn on a water faucet. When an Oriole hits a double or triple, they pretend to be a sprinkler in the outfield (once they're safely on base) while teammates in the dugout spit water like a fountain.
The "Homer Hose" has replaced last year's home run celebration, when players would receive a gaudy orange metallic chain with a big Orioles O on the end when they hit a home run.
Like any scoring celebration, the Homer Hose hasn't completely escaped controversy. Some opponents say the move glorifies binge drinking alcohol because the Hose looks like a funnel people chug beer from. Fans on X, formerly known as Twitter, haven't helped the Orioles' case in insisting it's not the same, calling the new contraption a "dong bong."
The team, including co-creators Cole Irvin and Keegan Akin, insist the Homer Hose is just good, clean fun, harkening back to the days of playing baseball in the streets with friends and drinking from a neighborhood hose.
"I’m definitely not out there, you know, promoting binge drinking or anything like that," Cole Irvin explained. "It’s primarily from a kid-like mentality of drinking out of a hose when we were kids and having fun playing the game the right way, with our friends. And that’s what it is.”
A little bit of nostalgia, a little bit of taunting and a lot of fun—the Homer Hose has everything a home run celebration needs.