Major League Baseball caps can show up in the most unexpected places, as the hit UK show “Britain’s Got Talent” has proved.
The winner of this year’s competition was not Internet phenomenon Susan Boyle but an athletic dance troupe called Diversity.
BGT has only crept into the American consciousness on a broad scale this year, and most of the credit for that has to go to the viral appeal of Susan Boyle. I learned of the BGT results yesterday via Twitter, and I followed a link to the video below to watch Diversity’s performance. I wasn’t paying close attention at first, but eventually I was astonished to find that most of the guys blokes in the group were wearing Houston Astros’ baseball caps for their final-round routine.
I still couldn’t quite believe my eyes. But when I watched a video interview with the troupe on the ITV official BGT site, there was no more doubt about the caps.
This is Memorial Day 2009, and we pay tribute to those who gave their lives in service of their country.
I have only a few military caps, including this one that I picked up some time ago in the waning years of Naval Air Station Alameda. It’s from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which used to be based in San Francisco Bay but has since moved north to Bremerton, Wash.
Of all the military might that the U.S. shows, it’s hard to top the firepower of an aircraft carrier.
I was born early enough to have a draft card and lottery number, but just late enough to have escaped the draft for service in Vietnam. I thank God for that, especially for not ending up in the Navy. In my one sea-going venture, aboard the Butchie B fishing vessel out of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, I proved myself completely unseaworthy. Words cannot describe the misery I felt as the Butchie B bobbed off the Golden Gate in the wake of an Alaskan storm. Once I hurled my breakfast over the rail, I righted myself and actually caught a couple of salmon and was feeling pretty spry as we sailed back into SF.
Would I have been able to endure naval combat? I’ll never know.
But I do know I am mighty grateful for the brave men and women who have given their lives over the centuries in service of their country. I fly the flag today in their honor.
One of my regular reads is the Uniwatch blog, which features the “obsessive study of athletic aesthetics.”
I was casting about this morning for a Memorial Day weekend theme and encountered this Uniwatch post about the red caps ball clubs will be wearing to honor the nation’s war dead. That’s a red, white & Brewers sample above.
The post has a cynical edge to it. Happy reading.
Meantime, I’m in search of a couple of military ball caps in my closet to get ready for a post on Memorial Day itself.
It’ s been years since I’ve paid anything more than cursory attention to the NBA playoffs, and what’s drawn me in this year is the intriguing possibility of a finals matchup between LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. I don’t know what lies ahead in the Eastern and Western conference finals, but I do know that last night’s finish in Cleveland as the Cavs topped the Orlando Magic on King James’ buzzer-beating three-pointer was one for the ages.
I’ve managed to catch the final minutes of the first two games of the Magic-Cavs series, and they have proved wonderful spectacle. A Cleveland native who remembers well the dire first years of the expansion team, I can’t help but root for the Cavs. Even as they blew a big lead and lost in Game One, I couldn’t complain. Orlando’s comeback was inspiring and thrilling.
Last night, after Orlando’s Hedo Turkoglu – he of the ever-present crooked smile – made a bucket to put the Magic up by two points with one second to go, I was resigned to the Cavs’ being down in the series two games to none. The Kobe-LeBron matchup seemed a fading hope. The chances the Cavs could tie the game and send it into overtime were just about nil.
Then, a miracle.
Mo Williams sent an inbound pass to James high above the key, and in one motion he caught the ball and fired it in a graceful arc straight into the basket.
That moment will live forever in replays. It’s particularly sweet for the Cleveland franchise, which seemingly always was on the receiving end of such heroic last-minute shots (See Jordan, Michael).
The Cleveland-Orlando series has the markings of a classic. I tip my cap to both teams. And I also note that from the angle of the Cleveland Plain Dealer photo above, it almost appears that LeBron’s headband is transformed into a halo.
Addendum: Here’s a great multi-angle compilation of the shot.
Late in tonight’s ballgame between the Oakland Athletics and the Tampa Bay Rays, slugging Carlos Pena came up with two men on and a chance to break a scoreless tie and give the Rays the victory. I was listening to the game on the car radio on my way home from work, and I faced a deep philosophical choice.
Carlos Pena
Do I pull for Pena, one of the stalwarts on one of my fantasy baseball teams? Or do I root for the A’s, a team I’ve followed as my “home team” for most of the past two decades?
I stuck with the A’s, who – amazingly – retired Pena, pushed the game into extra innings and won it in the 11th with a rare outburst of four runs.
I’m a casual fantasy player, and oddly I seem to fare worst in baseball, the sport I played the most and know the best. Maybe that somehow underscores the tussle in my psyche between pulling for a real team versus a fake one. Or maybe I just suck at fantasy baseball.
I do wonder how the ballplayers react when a fan at a road game comes up and says: “Dude, I’ve got you on my fantasy team. You gotta start hitting.”
What cheek.
When I was a kid – and I’m just old enough to remember the Los Angeles Angels and Washington Senators as expansion teams – I could recite the starting lineups of the American League teams. I had a fair knowledge of the National League lineups, too. With 30 teams in the leagues today, and with players changing uniforms multiple times over a career, it’s awfully tough to keep track. (Fernando Tatis is still playing, and he’s a Met???)
But trolling the fantasy baseball stats helps me know who’s where in real time, better than the stacks of Topps baseball cards I used to sort meticulously team by team. Managing fantasy hockey teams has certainly deepened my knowledge of the stars and muckers of that great sport, and for that I’m grateful. In fact, it was the EA Sports NHL video games that really helped me get a handle on the players and teams when my interest in hockey surged back full-tilt.
Is fantasy baseball pure and true? No, not even close. But how can anything that brings you a deeper understanding and appreciation for a sport be bad?
The Ball Caps blog is observing an evening of silence in recognition of the San Francisco Giants’ shutout loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles.
The sun will come up tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar.
A tip of the cap to Dom DeLuise, the comic actor who died Tuesday. While it was not easy to find a photo of DeLuise in a baseball cap, there was no problem to find photos of him smiling. A manic yet warm smile seemed to be fixed on his face, which got big laughs in many movies and TV shows.
One of my favorite DeLuise bits was his minor role in the Mel Brooks’ classic “Blazing Saddles,” in which he appears at the end of the film as the director of a campy all-male musical. He scolds the dancers and gives them an over-the-top lesson in how to do their “push out your tush” number.
DeLuise was always a treat when he appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson.
The 135th running of the Kentucky Derby was a dazzler, as 50-to-1 longshot Mine That Bird zipped along the rail and overtook the field to win by 6 and three-quarters lengths.
For many Americans, the Derby is the only horse race they know. And if it’s the only one to which you pay attention, pat yourself on the back for picking the best. The race itself flashes by in only a minute or two, but the Derby is more than that. It’s tradition, pageantry, mint juleps. And hats. Lots and lots of hats, stylish, wacky, sometimes both. A sampler is above.
Although I’ve never attended the Derby or even visited Churchill Downs, it’s definitely an event I’d like catch one of these years. I went to the Preakness at Pimlico in Baltimore way back in 1976, and it was a grand time.
One of my regular reads is the 
It’ s been years since I’ve paid anything more than cursory attention to the NBA playoffs, and what’s drawn me in this year is the intriguing possibility of a finals matchup between LeBron James of the 
The 135th running of the Kentucky Derby was a dazzler, as 50-to-1 longshot Mine That Bird zipped along the rail and overtook the field to win by 6 and three-quarters lengths.
