Preview: 2009 All Star Game

All-Star game balloting has begun. Every year, we suggest pretty much the same thing when it comes to All-Star gear.  If you're a fan of the team that is hosting, now is the time to load up on some unique gear.  If you're not really a St. Louis Cardinal fan, however, you probably won't fall in love with the color scheme of the uniforms coming out for this year's game.  

On the other hand, if you happen to be a Cardinals fan, this is your year.  The All-Star Game logo looks great this year and Majestic has come up with some great shirts already.  

We can't really get excited about shorts, unless you plan on buying a pair from your alma matter and wearing them to the gym periodically.  

If you're a Cardinals fan and you want something a bit different to pair with a standard jersey when going to a game, how about this hat?  

The problem with buying All-Star gear when your team isn't hosting is that we rarely remember where the game was held five years ago - making commemorating the event with a shirt or hat seem a bit ridiculous.  If your team does host, however, odds are you'll remember the event and want some sort of keepsake.  

Have fun voting! 

Best hats of all time?

Our friends at Uni Watch feature an interesting discussion of their favorite baseball hats of all time.  I agree with most of their assessments on a kitsch level, but some of these hats would look a bit geeky on a fan.  Personally, I think the Pirates pillbox hat screams dork.  On the other hand, the old school Cubs and Montreal Expos caps look great.  

Can most of us agree that the 1990s weren't exactly the best of times for hat design?  

Hat tip. 

Mailbag: Molding a Wool 59Fifty Hat

Reader Chris writes:

I am an avid purchaser of hats.  Usually just a few different teams (primarily the Atlanta Braves).  I recently purchased my first two 59/50 hats.   One is wool and one is poly.  I've read your site on the suggestions of how to mold/shape them my head and more to my liking.  The poly doesn't seem overly complicated with the hairdryer technique and I will try that asap.  However, the wool kind of confuses me.  I've seen tons of suggestions and methods.  The most one that seems the most effective I have read about is soaking it in warm water then putting it on your head.    My question is, do you put the whole hat into the warm water?   Will this hurt the logo?   

Thanks for the question, Chris!  You've anticipated the major line of my suggestions in your e-mail.  There are, as you mention, a ton of suggestions on how to shape wool 5950 hats.  They range from the fairly loony - wearing your hat in the shower, to the more subtle - wear it on a hot day.  Both of these suggestions come from somewhere, however, the desire to shrink the excess materials around the hat.

My suggestion is like the one Chris mentions - shape the wool hats with warm water.  Unlike our earlier suggestions about the new polyester caps (you can check on the MLB 5950s - if the underbill is grey you have an older wool cap and if it is black you have one of the newer polyester caps).  With the polyester techniques, I've mainly focused on shaping the wire mesh in the front of the cap that keeps it firm.  

The warm water sounds fairly simple, but there are some tricks to it.  Turn your cap over for a moment.  Do you see the light on the other side poking through those nice little ventilation holes?  Here is what I suggest doing.  First, take some water and put it on the stove and make it warm.  It is incredibly important that you don't bring the water to a boil or make it too hot - you don't want to burn your head.  Make the water warm, give it a moment to cool off, and hold the hat above a clean sink.  Slowly pour the water in a circle through those little ventalation holes.  It is important that you avoid letting the hat touch the logo in the front or the MLB logo in the back so that you avoid allowing the colors to run.  

Once you've got the hat warm and wet, put it on your head and hold it close to your dome.  Though your girlfriend won't like you very much for the next few minutes - you'll smell like a wet dog - she'll eventually like the fat that your hat looks far less goofy. 

Hope this helps.  Feel free to e-mail us with more questions! 

Dear Joba Chamberlain

Dear Joba, 

  We understand.  You want to look cool.  We want to look cool too.  You saw cool young guys coming up in the minors wearing flat billed ballcaps and and cocking them slightly to the side.  The look caught on in the minors and across colleges and high schools across the country.  

Hanley Ramirez, pictured above, wears a slight curve in his cap - but keeps it flat enough so that you can comfortably fit a pair of sunglasses underneath. Look at how cool and effortless this guy looks.  Why wouldn't you want to emulate that style?  Plus, you're a young phenom - if there is a time to do crazy stuff with your uniform - isn't this it?!

So Joba, you kept that bill flat - the straight off the shelf look. But there was a problem.  When you wear your bill totally flat, something happened.  It turned out that you look like one of the Mario Brothers. 

Exhibit A.) Joba                              Exhibit B.) Mario

And then, Joba, you took it all one step further.  You committed a crime against sports.  You took a pre-curved spring training hat and decided, "Hey, you know what!  This would look better if I tried to straighten it out like I do with the on the field caps."  What ends up happening is that you look like a little leaguer who threw their cap in the washer and dryer for too long.  

For the love of all things, holy, Joba.  Just let the spring training hat be.  If a hat is pre-curved, it is designed to look that way. Trying to straighten it out makes you look absurd.  Look, I don't love the spring training cap design either, but as a pitcher - you don't even have to worry about the sunglasses issue.  

We've come around a little to the straight bill look, but we still think and absolutely straight bill makes you look a bit cartoonish. Throw a subtle curve in there and wear it with your favorite sunglasses instead. 

What's that button on top of your hat called?

Ever wonder what that button on top of your cap is called.  Well, it is called a "squatcho" and it is there to cover up what used to be a messy meeting spot of fabric and materials.  According to at least one blog, you can remove your squatcho with no trouble.