The Ballcap Blog

I recently picked up an MLB umpire cap from the year 2000 on eBay. The MLB logo on the front was only used for the 2000 regular season, which was the first year that the MLB umpires were together in one group. The current MLB umpire logo began use in the 2000 post-season. The cap features a leather sweatband. Umpires had the option of leather sweatbands through the 2007 season, a full 20 years after players caps lost them. Oddly, the leather is stained and it has rubbed off on the cap enough to show on the outside. I wonder what the season for that is? If you have a cap you consider to be an "oddball" and would like to have it featured, please email me!

Hey everyone! I have a new eBay account. My screen name is now "insomniaccaps186". I currently have three caps from my collection on there now so if you are a Reds or Red Sox fan check it out. I will put various caps up for bid on occasion that I have doubles of or no longer want in my collection, so be sure to check once and a while to see if I have anything. I have various blog projects in the works that I will finish as time allows. If you have any suggestions or ideas of something you would like me to write about, please don't hesitate to comment or email me! Also, if you personally own or have seen any neat or interesting pro-model baseball caps, I would love to see them.

Now that New Era is no longer offering repairs (and I still haven't found a company or person that can do repairs), I've been trying to see if I can find a way to fix visors that are too stiff to bend and are at high risk of breaking. Despite the risk of running some of my caps, I decided to experiment. I held the caps under a faucet and ran water on both sides of the visor until the entire visor was saturated. I was careful to try and get as little water possible on other parts of the cap. Here are the results: Getting the visors moist DOES make them bendable again. However, older caps go back to being stiff after they dry. Only bend visors of old caps once they are completely saturated. The only reason you should do this to an older cap is to bend a warped/misshaped visor back in to the right shape. However, a few of them became bent out of shape again after drying. Luckily, caps made in the 90s and after seem to be cured and become flexible again. Obviously you must be caref...