Popular: Baseball caps are all about popular

I spent the day with my son and two of his friends at the Great America theme park in Santa Clara, Calif. While I joined the guys for several rides, I sat a few out and amused myself by taking inventory of the baseball caps people in the crowd were sporting.

As the San Francisco “Don’t Even Think About Moving Here, Athletics” Giants will unequivocally tell you, Santa Clara County is Giants’ territory. So it wasn’t a surprise that I spotted more orange and black caps than any other.  But it was nothing close to even 10 percent of all the caps on display.

The cap that most got my attention was a green Giants cap not unlike the one depicted, only the crown was spangled with glitter and the word “FRISCO” was emblazoned across the back. If San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen weren’t already dead, this cap surely would have killed him.

There were other colorful variations on Major League Baseball caps, such as a red, white and navy Oakland A’s lid on a guy ahead of me in a roller coaster queue. Another guy had a Yankees cap the color of lima beans with white piping (which actually was kind of cool).

I didn’t count, but the team most represented after the Giants and A’s was the Pittsburgh Pirates. The yellow-on-black “P” cap seems to resonate with young men.

After that, it was a mish-mosh of sox (Red and White), Yankees, Phillies, Nationals, even a Tampa Bay Rays cap. One Cubs cap, too, come to think of it.

Refreshingly, I didn’t see a single Dodgers cap all day.

The Bay Bridge series: Athletics vs. Giants

I’m on vacation for a week, and I celebrated by watching the San Francisco Giants host the Oakland Athletics in their first interleague games of the season.

I wish I had one of those A’s-Giants combo caps that were available during the 1989 Bay Bridge World Series, the one that was interrupted by the Loma Prieta Earthquake.  A good friend back east still has his, but I can’t even find a photo of one. This ersatz Giants’ cap in the A’s green and gold will have to do.

The San Francisco Bay area is the only market where a twin logo cap could exist. In New York, would any fan of either the Yankees or Mets want to share space on the crown with the other team’s NY? No way.

In Chicago, would a Cubs or Sox fan tolerate such? Never.

In LA? Angels and Dodgers together? Inconceivable.

Around San Francisco Bay, fans have fierce allegiance to their team, but it’s a market that appreciates both franchises. I take the twin logo cap as a signal that Bay Area people are true fans of the game, recognizing the value of both the American and National leagues.

(The Giants won tonight on a 3-0 shutout by Tim Lincecum. I was rooting for the Giants.)

Baseball cap outlook for 2009: The audacity of hats

Political and fashion lore has it that by not wearing a hat on inauguration day, John F. Kennedy killed the haberdashery industry. From then on, American men stopped wearing hats. While JFK and his fashion-conscious wife certainly influenced American style, I suspect the growing dominance of the automobile in our culture did more to hasten the end of the hat than Jack and Jackie.

As we approach Inauguration Day 2009, there’s renewed hope for us hat fanciers. President-elect Obama has been wearing his Chicago White Sox cap regularly since the Nov. 4 election, and he wore it while campaigning. That’s commitment. It’s not reasonable to expect that he’ll be sworn in wearing a baseball cap, but one can always hope.

Barack Obama, president-elect and Chicago White Sox fan

Here’s some great exposure for a baseball cap: President-elect Barack Obama wearing a White Sox cap. See more examples of how the photo played at the Innovations in Newspapers blog.

McCain or Obama: Who looks better in a ball cap?

Ready or not, the Democratic National Convention begins in Denver on Monday, to be followed a week later by the Republican convention. There’s no doubt about the nominees: Barack Obama for the Democrats, John McCain for the GOP. Which leaves us with one serious question: which president will look better in a baseball cap?

Making their pitch to America: Obama and McCain

This is a serious issue. Whichever candidate America chooses this November will earn not only the right to govern the country, he will also have the high privilege of throwing out the first pitch when the 2009 baseball season begins.

Most likely, the president will throw out the ceremonial ball at a Washington Nationals game. While this blog is politically neutral, it’s fair to pose the question of whether McCain or Obama would look better sporting a Nationals’ cap like the one above.

Presumably, the next president will have the funds available for an authentic fitted wool cap, rather than the bargain model shown here. I bought the cap at a Wal-Mart in 2005 when the National League expanded to include the Nats.

I was delighted that the franchise brought back the classic script “W” on a red cap, identical to the model worn by the Washington Senators of my youth. Those were the hapless Senators 2.0, the franchise that became the Texas Rangers. The original Senators bolted the District of Columbia long before and became the Minnesota Twins.

I’ve searched the Internet diligently for photos of McCain and Obama wearing baseball caps, and I was surprised to find relatively few. I found shots of Obama wearing a Chicago White Sox cap and jersey, but not much else. The New York Times reports that John McCain often wears caps to protect his skin from the sun, although the photo with the story showed him wearing what appears to a cap with an American flag.

So who’s the better man to take the mound at Nationals Park for the first pitch? Let the people decide. Leave a comment with your choice – McCain or Obama.