The Ballcap Blog

 Long time no post! I've had way too much going on. Anyway, today I'd like to talk about caps in recent history that were announced and even made, but never actually made it onto the field. MLB First, we have a Chicago Cubs St. Patrick's Day cap from the 2010s (the "Fly Your Own Flag" label was used from 2012 to early 2016). I followed the Cubs closely during this period and as far as I knew, the Cubs wore Velcro-back 3930s for St. Patrick's Day during that era. I own one such game worn example. Several of these surfaced on eBay through discount clothing sellers and did not appear to be available anywhere else. They were made in China. Next, we have another St. Patrick's Day cap. This is the replacement 2020 San Diego Padres St. Patrick's Day. As I'm sure many of you remember, the 2020 San Diego Padres Spring training/batting practice caps were yanked from the shelves and online retailers after it was pointed out that the way the inner logo was cro...

After buying multiple team issued MLB on-field caps over the last few seasons, I have determined that there are multiple types of caps that New Era is producing at their Florida facility and sending out to the MLB teams. Below is the list of types that I've encountered from New Era's assembly plant in the Miami, Florida area that opened in 2019. Size measurement band guide: Size measurement bands can be found between the crown and the back of the sweatband. A perforated band with brown ink is what New Era uses for all overseas-made caps. US-made caps with this band have had their crowns, embroidery/decoration, and visor cut and sewn overseas. MLB allows New Era to sew together the crown, visor, and sweatband at their Florida plant and call it "Made in USA." A solid white band with blue ink is for caps that have at least some degree of cutting and sewing domestically. New Era has used this size measurement band since 2006. The Usual This type cap is made exactly like t...

 Despite the MLB lockout, the new MLB Spring Training caps are finding their way to stores. Much to everyone's surprise, the new caps are "trucker" style mesh caps, the likes of which have not been seen on a professional baseball field for decades. Commonly worn in snapback form from the 70s through the early 90s during spring training, mesh was the last thing I expected to see with all of the fancy high-tech moisture-wicking fabric we have available today. New Era has used "basketball shorts" mesh in the past before experimenting with fancy materials for the past decade such as "Diamond Era", "Prolight", honeycomb-patterned "Hex Tech" and finally "Dash", a material similar to the kind used on jerseys which was used for the past two seasons and will likely continue to see use in the minor leagues. I can't say I wasn't completely surprised though, as the cancelled 2020 All-Star Game caps were to be made with mesh an...

2020 has been an interesting year to say the least. For those of us that still prefer to buy made in USA MLB on-field player's caps, the pandemic has made buying them a bit more complicated. With the closure of New Era's plant in Derby, NY in June of 2019, you can no longer purchase "what the pros wear" in stores other than what was remaining in stock. My plan from here on out is to purchase team issued caps directly from the teams. A made in USA Giants cap I purchased at the team store at Oracle Park. Any nook and cranny you could peek through to see inside the ballpark was tarped off. The sky was gray and full of floating ashes from California's horrendous summer fires. 2020 was as surreal as it gets. From what I have been told, the last caps that the Derby plant made were for special event games in 2019 (Memorial Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, 4th of July, the All-Star Game Workout/Home Run Derby caps, and certain "turn back the clock" caps....