The Ballcap Blog

Another elusive cap this past season was the Padres Taco Bell caps worn for the 1983 & 1984 Turn Back The Clock games. These were not available in retail, including the team store. In fact, you could not buy any newly made New Era taco bell caps ANYWHERE in 2011. Why? I have heard two things from a few different sources. One is that New Era's seamstresses dislike making them, which is likely why they were team store exclusives in 2010. I heard that last year there were "production issues". Whatever the case may be, only the players and coaches got them in 2011. I went to the Padres fan fest on Saturday, February 11th and by the time I got to the Padres garage sale, the 2011 taco bell caps were gone. Luckily, an acquaintance of mine that got in early grabbed me ONE team issued cap. So without further adieu, here is an up-close look at the 2011 Taco Bell cap. The front looks the same as the 2010 version, only now the outline is done differently. Instead of the orange

It's that time of year for MLB "fan fests", events where teams open their ball parks to the fans, players sign autographs, and game used items (for most teams) are sold off for pennies on the dollar. The Chicago Cubs held their event called the "Cubs Convention". During the 2011 season, the Cubs wore two caps that were not sold in retail. They were for sale at the Cubs Convention. The first cap is the 1947 style worn on May 4th against the Dodgers. The caps were provided by Bobcat Athletic (who made the uniforms), but it is most likely that the cap was actually made by California Custom Caps since the construction is identical to their caps, which is also the same as Ebbets Field Flannels. Strangely, they went with gray under the visor, and the cap is "unstructured", as in there is no buckram behind the front panels. Luckily, someone sold me one that was worn by Blake Dewitt. The second cap, made by New Era, was worn on May 21st against the Boston Red