Major League Baseball and New Era this morning unveiled their 2022 4th of July cap collection, to be worn on-field by all thirty big league clubs on the Fourth of July coming up just two weeks from now.
(Before we begin, since I keep getting asked about this, the Cubs are *not* wearing a “U” cap as shown in the featured photo, I just needed a “U” to spell out “USA” up there so I turned it 90 degrees — you’ll see their actual cap later in this post)
This year’s design seemingly brings us back to the era of the wide paint brush cap of the mid 1990s with a star-spangled pattern splashed across the back of two white front panels, the team’s usual cap logo recoloured in red, white, and navy blue on the crown. The back half of the cap is either navy blue or red (team’s choice) with matching visors and buttons.
Take a look:
SHOP: 2022 Major League Baseball 4th of July caps available now
And now the entire league, you can see there’s a slight advantage to the navy blues with 16 opting to go that route, and 14 choosing red:
SHOP: 2022 Major League Baseball 4th of July caps available now
*record scratch*
Yes, that indeed is a US-flag wrapped Toronto Blue Jays cap there in the lower right, let’s zoom in on that one…
Alright, so, I get that Toronto has its fair share of U.S.-born players, and they’re even playing in the United States on July 4th… but this seems like a helluva miss here, doesn’t it?
Like, when an American team travels to Toronto for Canada Day they ain’t wearing a red-and-white cap sprinkled with several dozen maple leaves, are they? They’re wearing either:
- their usual uniforms
- a USA flag clad cap and/or jersey (if 4th of July weekend)
- their usual uniforms with a small Canadian flag patch attached to it
Why can’t the Red, White, and Blue Jays go with #3 when playing in the U.S. on July 4th? That seems to be the most logical choice here, right?
Before we go, a look back at the Fourth of July cap from 2021, which, yes, also included a stars-and-stripes pattern on the Blue Jays cap but was explained away as them doing so in tribute to their home ballpark in Buffalo, New York at the time.
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