MLB Teams to wear US Flags on Caps for 9/11

In their third go at doing the patriotic thing this season, Major League Baseball and NewEra Caps have finally figured out the proper way to do it.

After having teams abandon their one most identifying element — their colour scheme — for both the Memorial Day, and Fourth of July games, for tonight’s September 11th contests the tribute will be nothing more than a simple US flag on the side of the cap. And that’s just fine with us.

Flag Patches Caps MLB 911 2013 — Some of the flag caps for sale on MLB.com — yup, the orange Marlins cap. Yup, it hasn’t been seen since June 2012.

The subtleness of the tribute almost makes it that much more impactful, I’d love to see them roll out a similar tribute for the other two patriotic dates on the calendar.

911 Flag Patch MLB Cap — A closeup of the US flag patch being worn by all MLB teams on their cap tonight

Teams originally wore just the American flag on the sides of their caps, as well as on the back of their jersey over the MLB logo, once play resumed following the attacks during the 2001 season. A similar flag tribute was used during games played on the 11th of September through the 2002-2007 seasons.

MLB patches September 2001 — In the weeks following the attacks all teams wore US flags on their caps as well as the back of their jerseys

Beginning in 2008, and for the next three years, teams would wear patriotic themed caps. Red, white, blue, stars, stripes, the whole deal.

September 11 911 mlb caps — From 2008-2010 all MLB teams wore patriotic themed caps on September 11th

For 2011, the 10th anniversary of the attacks, teams went back to the classic and much more appropriate flag-only tribute. It remained that way in 2012 and now again here in 2013. Well done, MLB.

As always, there’s a question as to what the lone non-American team will do on this US patriotic event, for tonight’s game the Toronto Blue Jays will wear both the US and Canadian flags on their caps (to also honour those Canadians killed in the 9/11 attacks). There’s one flag on each side:

Jays 2013 9-11 Cap Flags — The one non-American team in the league will wear both the US and Canadian flags tonight

You can purchase the special 9/11 flag caps on the MLB.com shop site, all net proceeds will be donated to: the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, Flight 93 Memorial, and the Pentagon Memorial.