Most Houston Astros fans remember the good-natured ribbing the team’s top position prospect, Kyle Tucker, underwent a year ago at Spring Training. With a swing reminiscent of legendary Boston Red Sox Hall-of-Famer Ted Williams, fellow ‘Stros had taken to referring to Tucker merely as “Ted.”

This week, Houston’s top pitching prospect, Forrest Whitley, had to explain why he showed up earlier this week in a jersey with the word “DADDY” stitched atop his uniform number.

On June 8, to hear the Houston Chronicle‘s Chandler Rome tell it, “the day Whitley returned from his 50-game drug suspension, he posted a photograph on Instagram with the caption ‘Daddy’s back.’ That night, he struck out five men in four innings for Class AA Corpus Christi.”

During Spring Training, the Astros gather inside their clubhouse at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches for their customary nine o’clock meeting, as they usually do first thing in the morning.

Manager AJ Hinch summons a player for whom this is his first major league spring camp to the front of the room. There, he must introduce himself to the team and disclose basic bio facts about himself to the assembled seven dozen or so players and coaches.

“Halfway Serious”

“Then the Daddy picture came up,” Whitley said sheepishly, “and the rest is history. It was halfway not serious, halfway serious,” the 6’7″ right-hander continued. “I was excited to get back on the field, so I thought that was an appropriate caption, although everyone knows now it was a little risky.”

“When the Astros’ major leaguers learned of the prospect’s post that June night,” Rome recounts, “a group of about 15 all bombarded Whitley with text messages. Whitley claimed he did not receive any of them.”

While Whitley addressed the post before the team, Justin Verlander, who admitted the players may have had the wrong phone number for Whitley last summer, emerged from a side door in Houston’s clubhouse. He gleefully held up Whitley’s No. 68 jersey with “Daddy” emblazoned across the back. It was the 21-year-old’s assigned uniform for the club’s second full-squad workout.

Referring to his slam dunk prank, Verlander bellowed, “I mean, he threw me the alley-oop. I was just kind of the one who got to put it down.”

Whitley good-naturedly embraced the initiation, jogging to the practice fields proudly wearing his curious new jersey. He says the jersey is “sick” (apparently in the best way possible) and he plans to have it framed.

“I kind of teed it up for them,” Whitley said, stating the obvious with a slight grin. “I was wearing it, man. I wasn’t embarrassed by it at all. I brought it on myself.”

“We’re not making fun of him or anything,” Verlander said, before catching himself. “Well, we are kind of. But in a good way. Kind of like a rite of passage.”

The fact that Whitley took the gentle ribbing in good fun was appreciated by his teammates. Starter Gerrit Cole said he likes when young players take it well because he, too, faced similar ribbing.

Faze the Nation

Maybe so, Gerrit, when you were with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but just a handful of years ago, the Astros harbored a secret hazing practice that has since been outlawed.

Deep in the dark underbelly of Minute Maid Park, as recently as 2015, newbie Astros could be seen prancing around in Wonder Woman and Batgirl costumes, as the team rookies underwent their ritual season-ending hazing.

Here’s pitcher Lance McCullers Jr, at the close of his 2015 rookie season, dressed in less-than-masculine Bat attire:

From the same year, shortstop Carlos Correa, again sporting Speedos, this time as Wonder Woman:

More than a year after this unfortunate exposure of skin, MLB slapped a hazing embargo on players. From the December 2016 SNY.tv:

“That baseball hazing ritual of dressing up rookies as Wonder Woman, Hooters Girls and Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is now banned.

“Major League Baseball created an Anti-Hazing and Anti-Bullying Policy that covers the practice. As part of the sport’s new labor deal, set to be ratified by both sides [December 13, 2016], the players’ union agreed not to contest it.

“The policy, obtained by The Associated Press, prohibits ‘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.'”

That’s good news for Forrest “Daddy” Whitley, who actually was forced to put on some new clothes, instead of being coerced to take some off.