{"id":568855,"date":"2026-04-07T00:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/568855\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T00:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T00:52:14","slug":"what-does-hoist-the-cone-mean-the-pirates-celebration-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/568855\/","title":{"rendered":"What does “hoist the cone” mean? The Pirates’ celebration explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Pirates are on a hot streak, and this year, there’s a new way to celebrate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pirates players and fans are lifting up a traffic cone in celebration, and the inside joke has caught on. The merch store at PNC Park is even selling t-shirts that say “hoist the cone.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Oh, people love the t-shirt,” said assistant store manager Lauren Torgent. “We’ve had people all weekend come in asking for a ‘hoist the cone’ t-shirt, people bringing cones into the store, the stadium, everything, so it’s been a wonderful experience.”<\/p>\n

\"Baltimore<\/p>\n

PITTSBURGH, PA – APRIL 03: Konnor Griffin #6 of the Pittsburgh Pirates carries a cone through the dugout after winning the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park on Friday, April 3, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Joe Sargent\/MLB Photos via Getty Images<\/p>\n

It’s not all fun and games though. ABM Parking’s Mid-Atlantic district manager said more than two dozen cones were stolen on opening day, and they’re costly to replace.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Where did “hoist the cone” come from?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Pirates came up with the tradition of a homerun-hitting player wearing a welder’s mask as an homage to the blue-collar city of Pittsburgh. As for the cone, its origins are a bit more mysterious. Some have said Fanatics, which runs the Pirates store, meant to print a t-shirt that said “raise the colors” but mistakenly printed “cone” instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When asked if that was true, Torgent said they don’t know. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re kind of just leaving it up to speculation and take it however you want to take it,” Torgent said. “But it’s been a great thing and it’s been an exciting thing to get the city involved.”<\/p>\n

Now “hoist the cone” has taken on a meaning of its own, with other variations of t-shirts popping up online.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re looking to do anything with the cone,” Torgent said. “So I saw somebody with cone earrings the other day, cone costumes, people were coming in with cone costumes.”<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Pirates are on a hot streak, and this year, there’s a new way to celebrate.\u00a0 Pirates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[13090,363,2240,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-568855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-major-league-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}