The 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) season opened this week. That makes today the perfect time to talk baseball caps.
History
Baseball’s first “official” team, the New York Knickerbockers (formed in 1845), adopted the first official team uniform and hat in 1849. However, in 1860, a Brooklyn, N.Y., baseball team (either the Knickerbockers or the Excelsiors) wore a hat designed specifically for them. This was the ancestor of today’s baseball cap.
While the early caps looked and felt like today’s caps, they didn’t yet include a logo or mascot. In 1894, the Atlanta Braves—or Boston Baseball Club as they were known at the time—became the first team to add a logo. In 1901, the Detroit Tigers became the first team to add a mascot, a tiger. (The tiger only lasted two seasons, and in 1903 they’d exchanged it for the letter “D.”)
Back then, teams weren’t quick to add mascots or logos to their caps. Doing so not only broke years of tradition but added extra work to the cap’s creation, most of which was done by hand.
Did You Know…
- The word “cap” comes from the Old French word “chapeau,” meaning “head covering.”
- Originally, baseball players could wear their choice (type and style) of hat.
- The first baseball caps were made from straw.
- The Florida Marlins hold the record for the most complex logo (10,966 stitches) ever put on a baseball cap.
Fashion
Before the 1970s, baseball caps belonged strictly on baseball fields as part of a team’s uniform. But as more and more young people played baseball, the baseball cap became a popular accessory worn at any time, not just during a game.
The cap’s biggest turning point came in 1980 with the debut of CBS’s show, Magnum PI. Everyone wanted to be as cool as Tom Selleck’s character, Thomas Magnum, who wore a baseball cap. The baseball cap’s popularity soared with Magnum and never looked back.
Did You Know…
- There was once a stigma attached to wearing a baseball cap off the field.
- Actor Ben Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, stalled the production of a movie for four days. Why? Because he refused to wear a N.Y. Yankee’s baseball cap.
- New Era Cap Company in Buffalo, N.Y. has been the exclusive MLB baseball cap supplier since 1993.
- Studies have proven that a black underbill is best for keeping the sun out of a player’s eyes.
- Regardless of advances in manufacturing techniques, materials, and even fashion trends, the silhouette of the baseball cap has remained basically unchanged for the past eighty plus years.
Military and Police
Although it’s called a baseball cap—and it’s firmly entrenched in sports—many military branches, police forces, and private security companies around the world include it as part of their uniform. This includes militaries in the U.S., Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia, and police forces in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Finland, Sweden, and Turkey, to name but a few.
Did You Know…
- In Finland, only police officers can wear baseball caps.
- A baseball cap is both a relatively cheap and a practical piece of headgear. But it also has the added benefit of being unisex, suitable for both male and female officers.
Baseball Bonus: Staying Cool
Until the 1940s, professional baseball uniforms—including caps—were made of wool, and summer games left players sweaty and uncomfortable.
One famous baseball player found a way to beat the heat. Babe Ruth (played 1914-1935) stripped the leaves off of a cabbage head and placed them on ice in a cooler. Once they’d chilled, he placed two leaves under his baseball cap to keep his head cool. He changed them for “fresh” chilled leaves every two innings.
South Korean baseball players tried Ruth’s cabbage-leaf cooler method. Unfortunately for them, the practice was banned after leaves fell from one player’s cap twice during a live tv broadcast. After that, it could only be used if the player provided a doctor’s recommendation in advance.
Did You Know…
- Being a large man, Babe Ruth needed two cabbage leaves to cover his head.
- Babe Ruth was one of the first players to use the newly designed baseball cap with visor.
- Beginning in 2014, MLB pitchers began wearing a special reinforced cap to protect their heads from line drives.
- It’s against the rules for baseball players to catch the ball with their hat.
- There is no rule that says a player must wear a baseball cap while playing the game.
- It’s a myth that wearing a baseball cap will make you bald.