MLB All-Stars to Wear Caps Based off 79 Twins Helmet

The era of a special templated cap for everything in baseball is expanding to disappointing heights in 2014.

In addition to already-established league-wide “holiday caps” for Memorial Day and the 4th of July we will now see special caps for the Home Run Derby and (even more unfortunately) the actual All-Star Game itself — to be worn by all players during the Mid-Summer Classic on July 15th.

According to a brief article in the 2014 MLB All-Star Game program, set to hit newsstands on Friday, every player will wear a cap designed in the same style as the Minnesota Twins 1970s batting helmets. The article shows only a photo of the Twins version of this cap but each player will have their own team cap logo replacing the Twins.

From the article:

“Show your team pride at the 2014 All-Star Game by wearing your favourite club’s MLB Authentic Collection Diamond Era All-Star Game and Workout Day caps by New Era. The All-Star Game caps that players and coaches will wear during the Midsummer Classic are inspired by the Minnesota Twins’ 1970s-era batting helmets. The caps feature each club’s headwear mark within a uniquely shaped panel on the front and include an All-Star Game patch, as well as gold stars on the back.”

The article continues to discuss the “Workout Day” caps showing a photo of the Pittsburgh Pirates version, this blue Pirates cap will be worn during the Home Run Derby, not the All-Star Game.

Call me crazy (you wouldn’t be the first) but one of the great things about watching the Major League All-Star Game to me over the years has been seeing the players in their regular home or road uniform all on the same field together. It was the ONLY time you’d ever see so many different uniforms and colours together at once. Yes, the players will still be wearing their individual team jerseys this year (but really, how long until we see special All-Star versions, right?) — by not pairing them with their actual cap it really loses what made that special. What we’re left with is seeing 30 different team “holiday caps” at the same time… and nobody likes “holiday caps”.

The 2013 MLB All-Star Game (top) looks like a classic baseball game between the leagues best is about to begin. The photoshopped version (bottom) makes one wonder when the circus arrived and where's the nearest exit out of here. — The 2013 MLB All-Star Game (top) looks like a classic baseball game between the leagues best is about to begin. The poorly photoshopped photo (bottom) makes one wonder when the circus arrived and where’s the nearest exit out of here.

I’m disappointed, I really am. But I’m not surprised.

As mentioned earlier, the design is based off of the 1970s Twins batting helmet, a design which the Twins have carried over to their home batting practice caps. The All-Star Game style is *slightly* different (logo won’t have the white outline, front panel will be curved differently), but you can get a good idea of how this will look together here:

Minnesota wore the batting practice cap for one game on May 19, 2013.

Special thanks to Twitter user @jakejahimiak1 for the heads up on this story

UPDATE (Jul 2/14 2pm ET):

Thanks to a post in the USA Today we’ve gotten a look at some other team caps and *fortunately* they’ll be re-coloured to match their respective colour schemes. Here’s a look at Baltimore (who are basically wearing their regular caps), Oakland, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia: