Fourth of July Caps

[Millennium]

Anyone like them?

Looks weird on some of the teams (red, white, and blue don't go with Orioles' orange and black), but I think they are pretty spiffy.

Just ordered one.

http://shop.mlb.com/family/index.jsp...arstripes_caps

[Scott]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

The Rangers one looks nice

[SPTO]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

The only one of those caps that look good is the Yankees one IMO.

[eXperiment63]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

I think the Red Sox cap looks ten times better than the Yanks one. Of course, I'm biased. But seriously, the caps are the Sox colors. It works very well.

[Millennium]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

If you look on the second page, the Blue Jays hat has a Canadian flag in it. That looks pretty nice as well.

[Skerik]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

I really like the Phillies caps.

Also, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of these caps goes to the Welcome Back Veterans Fund.

[BaseballCtchr]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

I got my Braves one this past tuesday.

[Marino]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

i like the Dodgers one...it looks good

[redskinrussell]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

My old Tigers hat is about 2 years old and is getting ratty, think I'll have to add this one to my collection of hats. I also really liked the Indians one too.

[av7]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

I really liked the Rockies one, going to check later today to see if they have stock still

[duke776]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

I agree, these hats are poretty cool.

[ChrisHero]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

Depends on the team of course, but seeing as how the Giants wear orange and black, blue just doesn't fit in.

[snepp]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

Also, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of these caps goes to the Welcome Back Veterans Fund.

Which makes this slightly interesting....

http://www.uniwatchblog.com/2008/06/24/catalog-scans/

Cap-ital Punishment: So I attended yesterday’s press conference about MLB’s “Welcome Back Veterans” program. They had most of the star-spangled caps on display (for some reason I was really fixated on the treatment of the Angels’ halo), along with the special ball and base that will be used during this promotion. There were lots of big shots on hand, including David Wright (whose presence was disturbing for me — shouldn’t he have been taking a pregame nap or something?) and Fred Wilpon (whose presence was disturbing for other reasons), plus about half a dozen Iraq and Afghanistan vets.

I don’t like the caps at all, but the charity initiative, at least as described, is clearly a good one, with lots of organizations participating on a pro bono basis (for further details, look here). After a presentation that lasted a little over a half-hour, the floor was opened for questions. The first two of these were total softballs — a guy from MLB.com, for example, asked Wilpon, “Fred, could you tell us a little more about why this is so important to you?” Someone else asked something of a similar tenor.

There’s nothing wrong with those types of questions, of course. There’s also nothing wrong with the kind of question I then asked, which went like this:

All the materials related to this promotion say that “a portion of the proceeds” from the cap sales will go to the charity program [look at the last bullet point here, for example]. Can you tell us what percentage that portion is?

The reason I ask is that some fans — including many who have already expressed their opinions to me as news of this initiative leaked out over the weekend — may view this program as just another merchandising program to move product and generate revenue. So what portion of the cap proceeds will go to the charity? And if it’s not 100%, why not?

And man, you could practically hear them crossing my name off their Christmas card lists. MLB PR czar Rich Levin glared at me like I’d just hocked a loogie in his cappuccino or something. “The answer is that that hasn’t been determined yet,” he growled. “But this is a charity initiative — it isn’t about generating revenue.”

“I’m not suggesting otherwise,” I responded. “But there’s a certain level of cynicism out there among some fans, so I was giving you a chance to clarify…”

“We reject that,” he snapped. “We reject the cynicism.”

And that, my friends, was the end of that. No more questions, cue the photographers for glad-handing pics. Afterward, two gentlemen who were involved with the vets’ program (i.e., not MLB employees) approached me and said, “I thought it was a very good question, and I don’t think you got much of an answer.”

When I got home, I found an e-mail from a local newspaper columnist of my acquaintance. “Loved your question at the news conference,” he wrote. “Then you vanished seconds after. Did security haul you away?” Actually, I’d hung around for about 10 minutes afterward. Anyway, I wrote back, “Heaven forbid anyone should ask a non-softball question, right?” To which he responded, “The reason that he got all offended was because you nailed him! Of course it’s just another marketing initiative! LOL.”

Actually, I’m a little less cynical than that. I think it’s more that Levin, and a lot of the other MLB suits, are completely out of touch with the way fans think. And if I told him that, he’d probably say, “Oh no, that’s not true — we do all sorts of focus groups to keep us in touch with fans’ opinions,” without realizing that that’s part of the problem. These guys are so corporate, so expense account, so executive suite and boardroom, they have no freakin’ clue what it’s like to be an average baseball fan, and even less clue as to how their machinations are perceived by the rest of us. They live in a hermetically sealed bubble, sort of like a permanent luxury box. So when they come up with a nice idea — and that’s certainly what the Welcome Back Veterans program is, stupid caps or no stupid caps — they pat themselves on the back and are genuinely surprised when someone (me, in this case) has the temerity to ask a real question that requires a real answer.

Footnote: An MLB spokesman later said he’d try to find an answer to my question.

How can you have a promotional thing like this and not have an important figure like that already determined and readily available? That should be common sense you would think. Unless of course you're trying to milk someone else's charity in order to make yourself a few extra bucks....

[Pared]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

Brewers and Rangers look the best.

I may pick one up.

[rspencer86]

Re: Fourth of July Caps

Also, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of these caps goes to the Welcome Back Veterans Fund.

Besides looking pretty awesome, I'd say the above is another good reason to consider purchasing one of these bad boys.

EDIT: Just read snepp's post, that sounds a little suspicious. As a journalism student, a red flag always goes up when someone refuses to answer such a simple question. I hope a fair portion of the proceeds will actually to go the Veterans Fund.