Anyone else notice this?

Game 7 of the World Series between the Indians and the Cubs could not have been more exciting.

When the game ended, I continued to watch the post game celebrations and interviews when I noticed Joe Maddon wearing what looked like an Angels cap?

A quick internet search confirmed that I was not seeing things.

Joe Maddon was a bench coach in 2002 when the Angels won the World Series by beating the San Francisco Giants in seven games.

It was also the rookie year of this cap:

I don't particularly care for this style, as I like to see some color contrast in the logo, but it is an improvement over what they were wearing in 2001:

Anyway, back to Joe Maddon.  Why was he wearing an Angels cap after he just won the World Series as the manager of the Cubs?

Turns out this was his father's cap that he always carries with him.  According to an article I read, Joe's father passed away in 2002 and he saved his dad's cap.

He stated that this cap is permanently in his bag and goes everywhere with him.  On the day of game seven, he looked at and thought of it more than usual.

This got me thinking.....

My father is getting up in age and not in the best health that I would like him to be.

On my last visit to my parents house, I surveyed a few rooms to see where his caps were.  He has quite a few (all snapbacks) and rarely leaves the house without one

I might even start wearing one now.

Cap Icons

A few months ago, I talked about a book I had come across titled Ballcap Nation. 

The author, James Lilliefors, was having coffee with his girlfriend and was surprised at how many people were wearing ballcaps.

Mr. Lilliefors makes a case that Tom Selleck and Victor French made it acceptable to wear caps in any social setting.

How about some others that have made cap wearing socially acceptable...

 

1919-1922 NY Giants cap worn by "Short Stuff" in Temple of Doom.

Great job el_gmac!

 

Christmas Vacation (1989) is one of my all time favorites.

Ice Cube featured a Tigers cap in Boyz N the Hood (1991)

Billy Crystal consistently donned a Mets cap in the 1991 wildly popular  City Slickers.

I'm no fan of Tom Cruise but I do remember him wearing a Red Sox cap in A few Good Men. (1992)

The Chicago White Sox cap would get my vote as "cap of the 90's" as it was popularized by Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eze E, and Tupac.

Michael Moore has more caps than the people that read this blog.

This would get my vote for 2016 cap of the year.

If I missed one please let me know!

Ball Cap Nation

I'm not going to beat around the bush.  I absolutely love this book.

If you have found this blog, you should check it out. 

I learned about the importance of Magnum P.I., the story behind Hat World, New Era, and the proper care and maintenance of caps.

I reached out to author James Lilliefors for a quick interview::

Where did the idea for the book come from?

I was having lunch with my girlfriend one day and she glanced around the restaurant and said, “Look at all the people wearing baseball caps. "

Twenty years ago, you wouldn’t have seen that. She was right. What had changed in our culture during that time to make ball caps so prevalent?

The book started with that question. As I began to look into the history of the ball cap, the story branched off in other directions and it soon became clear that the ball cap was a part of American cultural history that hadn’t really been written about.

I’d recently done a book on boardwalks and was looking for another topic about American culture; ball caps seemed to fit the bill (okay, sorry, bad pun).

Are you a cap collector?

I have a large but not especially distinguished collection of ball caps. Mostly I collect caps as souvenirs of places

I’ve traveled. I always buy at least one cap on vacation.

Are you a baseball fan, what team do you wear?

As a kid, I was a huge baseball fan, as were most of my friends. I’d often spend more time studying baseball stats than school assignments.

But then my home team, the Washington Senators, abandoned us and became the Texas Rangers.

During the 33 years that Washington was without a baseball team, I lost most of my interest in the sport.

I sort of follow the Nationals now, and also a couple of the teams in Florida (where I live), but not closely.

So I don’t wear any team’s cap, no. But I do still wear a Redskins cap in the fall.

Favorite thing you learned from writing?

That writing can take you anywhere and teach you anything.

Specifically from the cap book: that the baseball cap has become an apt symbol of our country (and one of our chief cultural exports), but that its meaning changes depending on the wearer.

I like the basic contradiction inherent in cap-wearing: ball caps are a way of expressing our individuality and at the same time our sense of being part of a larger community.

Names and genres of other books you have written?

I’m writing novels these days, including a mystery series about a pastor and a homicide investigator (The Psalmist and The Tempest) and a geopolitical thriller series featuring a former CIA operative and his journalist brother (The Leviathan Effect and Viral).

I’ve also written books on Americana and on art, including America’s Boardwalks.

Thank You James!!

Tip of the Cap to Tampa Bay

From a fan's point of view, I live and die with the Phillies.

As a cap collector, Tampa Bay is the gift that keeps on giving.

They redesigned their caps before they started to play!

In 1995, three years before they began play, they rolled out these caps for retail sales:

Horrible in my opinion and look like Minor league logos.

In their first year of play in MLB  (1998)they ended up wearing these on the field:

For me, animals and nicknames do not belong on a MLB cap.

But back to the focus of this post, to document some unique caps worn by the Rays over the years.

On 6/21/08 the Rays wore caps and uniforms of the St. Petersburg Pelicans of the Senior Baseball league.  This league only existed from 1989-90.

The cap on the far left is a game worn  cap that I purchased from one of the players from the Senior league.

The cap in the middle was worn by Scott Kazmir on 6/21/08 and has the MLB hologram certification.  It also has a Cooperstown Collection tag on the inside as well.

The cap on the right was purchased from the team store at Tropicana Field and has a Genuine Merchandise tag inside.

The "Brayser" cap debuted in 2010. 

Manager Joe Maddon designed plaid sport jackets for a road trip.

Players wore the caps on 09/29/10 in a 2-0 loss to Baltimore.

On  7/2/11, the Rays paid tribute to the 1951 Tampa Smokers.

The Smokers were a "B" level Minor league team of the Florida  International League.

It was a 5-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Earth Day Cap

Worn on 4/21/12 for batting practice only at home vs. the Minnesota Twins.

This is my favorite "Turn Back the Clock" cap of all time.

On the left is the actual model that was first worn on the field on 6/30/12, again on 7/6/13, 6/21/14, and 6/27/15.

On the right, is the retail version that New Era sold to the public.

Tampa Bay did not begin play until 1998, but why can't they have a throwback?

Introduced on 8/10/14....the road version of the "Turn Back the Clock".

It was a 3-2 loss to the Cubs for the Rays.

As far as I know, this cap has not been worn since.

To honor the victims of the shooting at Orlando's Pulse night club, the Rays wore this cap on 6/17/16.

The Orlando Rays were the AA Minor League affiliate from 1999-2003.

This cap would get my vote as "Cap of the Year" for 2016.

Animal Adaptations

Not only am I a nerd, but my wife has turned into one also . Her conversation, at some point, is going to end up around science.  She doesn't realize it, but the metamorphosis has been obvious and is now complete. 





On our dates, in the middle of my important baseball cap observations and commentary, she is known to use the restaurant napkins to write down her "eureka" moments and ideas.



In the middle of the current NLCS, she is designing experiments for her students.

As she is tired of listening about cap logos, I must admit, I'm not really interested in life science, cell structure, or genetics...then some of her nonsense got my attention.

I was listening (pretending) to her ramble about how her students enjoy learning about animal adaptations.

Hmmm...baseball caps, adaptations, logos, is there a parallel?  Possible blog post? 

Here we go...

The most common animal adaptations (change that helps an animal survive its environment) are : camouflage, mimicry, warning coloration, behavioral, and physical adaptations.

Artificial Bigness

The ability to appear bigger to ward off predators



Logo/Cap example of Artificial Bigness:

1994 Milwaukee Brewers

Worn from 1994-96

Communal Living

Group living situation where people share everything.

 Logo/Cap example of Communal living

Interleague play was introduced in 1997 and the Phillies debuted this cap and logo for the occasion.

Warning Coloration

Conspicuous coloring that warns a predator that an animal is unpalatable and poisonous

The Blue Poisonous Dart Frog

Logo/cap example of warning color:

1993 Florida Marlins  (totally unpalatable)

2012 Miami Marlins (Poisonous)

Mimicry

The action or art of imitating to deceive

The monarch is poisonous and the viceroy is the brilliant mimic.

Logo/cap  example:

 2004 Capital City Bombers

South Atlantic League

Class "A"

Mets affiliation

In 2005 the team moves from Columbia to Greenville.

Do you notice the difference?

Physical adaptation

The development of a physical adaptation to help the animal survive in its environment.

Hill-like humps are used for storing fat, not water.

Logo/cap example:

1969 Oakland A's

By 1973 an extra serif and apostrophe had grown.

The last example is not  necessarily an adaptation, but something I learned while doing the research for this post.

When otters sleep, they grasp each other so they do not drift apart.

I had to include this, because it reminds me of my better half.

She is truly a nerd, but she is my nerd...and I am never letting go.

Get to know XclickX

 Let's just say that my wife gets a little annoyed with my cap obsession/collecting. 

She's tired of the conversations with strangers, packages being delivered, and excessive phone conversations and texting with those whom she has labeled, "the nerds like you."

However, she seems to be ok with being interrupted by a text from xclickx.

Why?  We'll get to that later.

Here's a little info about xclickx, also known as Anthony Collicchio:

What kind of caps do you like to collect and why?

I collect MLB and MiLB on-field hats (USA made). I do own a few NHL hats and would love to buy more if somehow they were made in the USA. Why? Because I love baseball and grew up wearing the on-field hats.



How many do you have in your collection?

Up until recently I had an up to date online catalog of my hats. I have stopped updated it and would estimate having around 700.

What would you consider to be your most prized caps?

Well I luckily still own some of my first ever New Era hats from the early 90s( my mother is a bit of a hoarder). A Clearwater Phillies hat and a Seattle Mariners hat. Besides those a few of my father's hats he passed on to me (SWB Red Barons come to mind).



If you could pick a MiLB and MLB cap of the year, what would they be? 

Well for the minor leagues the Iron Pigs and Senators were the best MiLB hat producers of 2016 as a whole. They both released multiple USA made one-offs this year. If I had to pick the best 1 hat from any team it would be the Iron Pigs Father's Day hat. If the Hickory rebrand counted for 2016 (even though they unveiled them in 2015) I may have went with their alternate.

 My favorite MLB cap this year was the Phillies 1976 pillbox hat. I like this hat because of its uniqueness. New Era did not add a batterman and the Phillies logo was appropriately sized.





What is your opinion of New Era's decision to put the flag on the side of the on-field caps in 2017?

I'm mad that they are ruining the look of the on-field MLB cap.I will not buy anymore on-field MLB caps if this trend continues. It is one thing to have the flag on MiLB caps but it is a whole other level on a MLB cap!



Any caps that you are currently searching for?

 Jimmy Rollins 2002 ASG patch hat is my number 1. Also a 2008 Stars & Stripes hat for the Brewers and Rockies.

Any interesting stories about finding a cap or meeting fellow collectors?

I've luckily had the chance to meet some awesome hat collectors over the years! I've been to Cincinnati, Philly, Detroit and Trenton to meet up with some awesome people.





What is your favorite cap to wear currently?

I have been wearing my Indians mid 70s crooked C tbtc hat a lot. I am pulling for the Indians to win the series this year!



To close the post, let me say that I am one of the hat collectors that has been able to meet up with xclickx at both MLB and MiLB games.  He picks up caps for me in his travels and lets me know about internet auctions that I was not aware of. 

He even will not bid on a cap that he wants if he knows that I really want it.  How many people would do that?

My wife has mentioned to me several times at baseball games, "You should ask xclickx if he wants one."

To check out his online collection, click here: xclickx caps