When A-Rod, Jeter and more posed shirtless

But at some point, the shirts came off, and multiple photos were taken at different angles. How, or why? There are varying opinions on it.

“I’m pretty sure it was nothing scripted,” Verducci said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, let’s think about pictures we’d like to get and, hey, why don’t we get a picture of all these guys shirtless?’ I was definitely not aware of that. I think it was an impromptu shot.”

Iooss wasn’t sure if he asked the group to remove the shirts or someone just went ahead and did it. Either way, he seemed to hint at one particular person to de-shirt first.

“I’m sure A-Rod was the first to take it off,” he said. “Oh yeah, he was like Ronaldo or something.”

And then the rest of the four players followed suit.

“I worked out a lot so I wasn’t worried about taking a photo without my shirt,” Ordóñez said. “I thought it was cool.”

“It’s another example of the power of peer pressure, I think,” Verducci laughed.

Is Derek Jeter's birthday a good enough excuse to bust out the 1997 shirtless shortstops photo? You bet it is: pic.twitter.com/N5GiWMls

— SI Vault (@si_vault) June 26, 2012