April Fool's Day

April 1, 2018

I'd like to go on record and make a prediction.

In the very near future, every MLB team will start to wear special caps to mark April Fool's Day.

Think I'm joking?

New Era has a pattern of doing this.

Well, the pattern is that a few teams start wearing a specialized cap to mark a holiday and then New Era markets the occasion with every team.

The Cincinnati Reds already did this in the early 80's.for a Spring Training game.

The Reds played a prank on their fans....wearing these caps with a reversed color scheme.

I acquired this cap from a former MLB player-agent who saw this  blog and was looking to sell caps he acquired from his  former clients.

I consider this Reds cap one of the rarest in my collection and have never seen others.

While I am  expecting the April 1st Day caps for all MLB teams in the very near future, 

here is reference/guide if you have some "unique" looking authentic MLB caps and want to know what year they were worn:

The first year for the Spring training patch was 2016.

Even though I am not a fan of the White Sox I did purchase the cap pictured above because of "the incident".

In 2016 during Spring Training, Adam LaRoche walked away from a 13 million dollar contract after he was told to limit his 14 year old son's visits to the clubhouse.

If you would like a reference or guide of the Spring Training caps, here are the Phillies Grapefruit league caps from 2016-18.  Notice that in 2016, the patch was on the left side.  The patch has been on the right side of the cap ever since 2016.

However, New Era was selling, not necessarily requiring, MLB teams to wear specialized caps for Spring Training well before 2016.

Specialized Spring Training caps did not debut in 2016, many teams were wearing them well before 2016.

I found this Expos New Era cap from 2001.

In 2001, the Expos held Spring Training in Jupiter Florida/

Mass production of St. Patty's Day caps appears to begin in 2014 even though several teams were wearing them much earlier.

In 2016 every team had a cap to mark the occasion.

The "patch" would not appear until 2017.

In 2004, every MLB team wore an Opening Day Patch on the side of their cap..

This was not continued after the 2004 season.

2013 saw the debut of the Memorial Day caps,

In typical New Era fashion, caps were slightly modified in the following years. In 2014 (back right) they gave all teams a red or navy brim and in 2015 (front center) a red or navy cap with a camouflage brim.

2016 brought significant change that I liked.

Toronto's version was slightly different than the other teams.

2017 was my favorite Memorial Day cap so far.

The five stars on the right side of the cap represent the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.

In 2016 New Era trotted out the league wide Mother's Day (above) and Father's Day Series (Below).

2017 brought a simple change to this series:

2008 was the first year that all MLB teams wore special caps on July 4th which have become known as the Stars and Stripes caps.  All caps were navy blue in 2008, all red in 2009 and a white cap in 2010.

The 2008 Chief Wahoo is my favorite and usually sells between 75-125$

April Fool's Day caps?  Don't laugh...they will be here soon..