The Ballcap Blog

Aside from the Angels "Flashback Friday" caps that were released recently, multiple caps for this season's "Turn Back The Clock" games have been released in the modern 100% polyester "Cool Base" style. Availability varies, and they can be found at hatlclub.com, ecapcity.com, and the mlb.com shop. Here are the caps that have been released to the general public thus far: Tampa Bay Rays as the 1940s "Tampa Bay Smokers" 1940s St. Louis Cardinals Los Angeles Dodgers as the 1940s "Brooklyn Dodgers" Early 1980s Seattle Mariners Washington Nationals as 1930s "Washington Senators" 1970s Atlanta Braves, made for the "Civil Rights Game" 1930s San Diego Padres "Pacific Coast League" 1970s/80s Philadelphia Phillies Early 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates Kansas City Royals (I can't find any further information, any help is appreciated) 1960s Baltimore Orioles More caps are expected to be released throughout the season, I...

"Hat Club" announced today via their Facebook page the arrival of the four Angels "Flashback Friday" caps to their retail locations. What is shocking to me is the fact that they went with the 100% polyester "performace" caps rather than wool models normally used for "Turn Back The Clock" games. Does anyone have these yet? I'd love some detailed pictures!

Early on in my collecting, I noticed there are two distinct styles of vintage New Era caps. Here are two examples of the exact same caps for two different teams. First we have the mid to late 1970s San Diego Padres caps. Then we have a pair of Chicago Cubs caps circa 1985 - 1987. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two styles is the visor. Notice the first cap in both pictures features a more "squared-off" visor. The second style has the more rounded edges like New Era caps of today. Let's talk about the insides. Style "one" on the left has transparent taping and backing behind the front panels. Style "two" on the right has satin taping and more opaque backing. Another difference is the embroidery. The 70s versions have somewhat of a difference, but on the 80s versions the difference is less drastic. Style one has much flatter embroidery. On style two, the logos are bulkier. The are other differences as well. I have noticed on style one...

Hey everyone and sorry again for the lack of updates, I have actually been working hard on articles for the blog but I have been waiting on responses and I'm still gathering more information on certain things. Anyway, as most of us know, New Era introduced 100% Polyester on-field caps for MLB and MiLB in 2007. Many purists loathe these caps, but because I sometimes like to wear the latest caps for teams that I support, and I have purchased a few of them. Below are three example of caps that I have worn on a regular basis since 2010. At first I was skeptical about polyester caps. My first purchase was a 2009 San Jose Giants cap (My home MiLB team) . I though it was cheap and felt like cardboard. However, with time and with the purchase of a few more, I learned to like them. My biggest pet-peeves I had with wool caps were gone-the white stains on the crown, the discoloration of the sweatband, and of course, the shrinking and fading. As a drummer in a hard rock band they are ideal. ...

I recently received yet another oddball cap. Everyone knows that from 1977 to 1982, the San Francisco Giants wore caps with orange visors. I already owned two versions of this cap: The regular on-field version made by New Era, and a version made by Roman. This cap is made by New Era but is slightly different than the one that I already owned. The front logo is slightly different, the visor is the "older" style, and the underside visor fabric is green. The Giants had switched to gray in the early 1970s. Below is a four-way comparison between Giants caps. From left to right, we have a KM Pro cap circa late 1960s/early 1970s, a Roman Pro cap circa 1977 to 1982, the "oddball cap" made by New Era, then the regular 1977 to 1982 version made by New Era. When it comes to the orange-visor caps, the true on-field version is the one on the far right. Here is Vida Blue to demonstrate. I figure this cap could be one of two things. Either it's a prototype, or it was just an u...

I recently purchased a Phillies cap made by Wilson, the first Wilson cap in my collection. All Wilson caps were made under private label. Usually, the caps were made by New Era with the embroidery provided by Roman. I have also seen Phillies caps that were obviously made by KM Pro that have Wilson tags. The particular cap that I purchased seems to be a KM (or Roman)/New Era hybrid. The shape of the cap is classic KM. However, the embroidery isn't Roman's, which was more slanted. It looks more like New Era's. The sweatband is also identical to New Era's, but there is no foam inside the band. The backing is quite different from anything I've ever seen. I believe 1987 was the last year they made Wilson caps, and the Phillies were their last customer. Does anyone know for sure?

For a period of at least a few years, the Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co. made what appears to have been the most accurate throwback caps ever made. Until a year or so ago, I didn’t even know they existed! Where were they hiding? Mitchell & Ness had two different cap manufacturers (under private label) before losing their license to make MLB caps in 2003. The first maker was the Roman Pro Cap Company, who made throwback caps on their own for years but fell into financial difficulties after the 1994 strike. I will focus on these versions. The second maker was American Needle. Their versions of Mitchell & Ness caps still exist today as their own “Deep Dish” series. Although Mitchell & Ness caps were made by Roman, their only similarity to Roman’s own caps was the embroidery (and leather sweatbands for the caps that called for them). Extra steps were made to have the caps look and feel like the real caps made by Tim McAuliffe & KM Pro, the companies that Roman provided t...