The Ballcap Blog

The results of the first Ballcap Blog poll "In what decade was your favorite ballcap used?" are in: We have a tie between the 1960s and 70s. However, because the 70s was in the lead for most of the time the poll was up, I have decided to make this next blog a tribute to the caps of the 70s. "That 70s Ballcap Blog" Let’s enjoy some of the more flashy, outlandish, and unforgettable ballcaps from the 1970s, shall we? Feel free to crank up the volume and enjoy “That 70s Song (In The Street)” by Cheap Trick, which was the theme song for the sitcom “That 70s Show”, and enjoy the blog. 1971 saw the California Angles with this interesting one-year design. Who could forget the "kelley green" caps of the Oakland A’s, the most dominating team of that decade? I once saw an MLB commercial a few years back where someone said “If baseball can survive Astros uniforms, baseball can survive anything.” I guess they were right! This Atlanta Braves cap was immortalized by Hank...

It's time to discuss one of the most infamous caps of all time: the 1969 Seattle Pilots! As most of us know, the team existed for one season and then in 1970 became the Milwaukee Brewers. The Seattle Pilots may have existed for one season, but they had three different caps. So where do we begin? How about 1968. Joe Schultz is announced as the manager of the Pilots. Here he is wearing a prototype cap, the first time the world saw a Pilots cap. This is the only image I could find, and who knows if any exist out there today. It's probably one of, if not the rarest post-war baseball caps out there. I have no idea what company made it, but my guess would be the KM Pro Cap Company. The cap is royal blue in color with a gold stylized "S", a gold band across the bottom of the front panel, and the "scrambled eggs" on the bill just like a airline pilot's cap. Were reproductions ever made? Yes! The recently-defunct Cooperstown Ballcap Company made them and I w...

In the days before exclusive licensing, many different companies competed to make various parts of a ball players' uniform. Many different companies made on-field ballcaps before New Era was granted exclusive license for ballcaps in 1994. As time goes by, information on the now-defunct companies that used to make ballcaps gets lost. As a tribute to those companies, I will post profiles full of company information I have gathered from various sources once and a while. First I will begin with the Roman Pro Cap Company. Roman Manufacturing Corp. was started in 1936 by Larry & Olga Mazzola creating monogramming for fine linens, handkerchiefs, towels, fur coat linings and more.During the early years the company name was changed to The Roman Art Embroidery Corp. They developed many clients in the sporting goods manufacturing industry and became a major source of embroidered logos for the uniforms of the professional sports teams. The Boston, Mass. based Tim McAuliffe Inc., foun...

Hey baseball fans, I will begin my first real blog by talking about my favorite caps of all time: the San Diego Padres “taco bell” caps of the 1970s and 80s. Take warning that this will be a long read; however, future blogs most likely won’t be this long. These caps are my favorites. I have tried to find out everything about them, so please bear with me and I promise you will learn lots of interesting facts. First of all, most people think there are two versions of the Padres “taco bell” caps: the 1974 to 1979 version, and the 1980 to 1984 version which added orange outlines and eyelets. However, there are many different versions and variations made by three different companies and multiple reproductions. First off, why are they called “taco bell” caps? Well, take a look at the yellow front panel of the cap. Modern-day remakes of these caps make it simply in the shape of a triangle, which is very inaccurate. If you look at the original caps straight on, the front panel is in the shape...

Hello and welcome to the ballcap blog. In my blogs I will be discussing on-field pro model baseball caps made for on field use, commonly known today as "fitteds." In Major League Baseball today, the New Era Cap Company is the lone company that produces caps for on-field use, and it’s been that way since the 1994 season. Before then, back to the mid-1980s, there were two; New Era and Sports Specialties Corp., which was bought out by Nike later in the 1990s. Before the mid 80s, there were several more. Baseball caps were made by all of the major sporting goods companies: Wilson, Rawlings, MacGregor, Spalding, and more. There were also many other companies no longer with us, such as Tim McAuliffe, Inc, and their successor company, the KM Pro Cap Company, which then shut down in the mid 1970s. Their embroiderer, the Roman Art Embroidery Co., began making caps in KM’s place and started making reproductions of old-style caps, now commonly known as “throwbacks.” The Roman Pro Cap Co...