Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Generation Cap

We've reached the most barren stretch of the sports landscape. A time when Sportscenter might as well be Baseball Tonight because, aside from the occasional WNBA highlight, baseball highlights are the only actual sports being showcased. July and August, simply put, are dreadful from my perspective as a sports fan.

I often talk about how much I hate baseball but that's not actually the case. I find the season to be impossibly long and the sport is awful on television but there are actually things about baseball that I enjoy. It allows me to further connect with my Dad through the Cardinals, who he watches religiously. It's among my favorite sports to attend in person as its slow pace and (generally) outdoor venues make it an ideal place to have a few beers in the summer. And finally, there's the hats. Major League Baseball and New Era have combined to give the public the best hats available on the market today. They are made of high quality material, they're fitted (Old guy rant: Fuck snapbacks. They are bullshit and I refuse to purchase them.) and they are available with a wide array of colors and logos. As a long time hat connoisseur, I own many MLB fitters.


And here's the point of this post. For some reason, the generation(s) older than mine have some belief that wearing the hat of a Major League Baseball team means that you are a fan of that team. Nearly every time I wear one of my MLB hats some old guy sees me and makes a comment about whatever team whose hat I'm wearing on that particular day. Many times it's a throwaway comment and we both move on with our lives without more than an acknowledging head nod from myself. But nearly as often it's a comment that requires me to respond by telling the guy that I'm not actually a fan of the team whose hat I'm wearing. When this happens the look I receive in return is a mix of surprise and befuddlement. Even my own Dad (a few years back) has asked me why I'm wearing a Giants hat when they beat the Cardinals in the Playoffs the previous season. My answer: Because its a cool hat and I don't really care enough to hold a grudge against a business that beat out the business I choose to support.

What's the point of me telling you this? Well, post count, but also a reminder that age has a strange way of defining things to us that don't apply to others outside our generation and something as simple as a hat choice can bring that to light. Now can we just get to football season already?

29 comments:

rob said...

i have a toronto blue jays hat as a result of a bet i lost to clarence. it's a cool lid, and it fits me really well. and i can't wear it because i don't like the blue jays.

Mark said...

You old guys are weird.

zman said...

You know what's weird? Kids today wear their hats with a perfectly flat brim, they leave all the stickers on the brim, and they tuck their ears into the hat. The only kids who did that when I was a boy were kids with developmental disabilities.

Also weird: the correlation between sock height and age. I'm willing to guarantee that everyone who reads this blog wears short socks with sneakers. I'm not sure if Michael Jordan started the trend, but guys our age do not wear calf-height athletic socks. Kids today wear their socks high as hell and they wear them in crazy fluorescent colors.

Harumph. Get off my lawn with your pink high socks and stickered hat.

Mark said...

Flat brims on hats is a trend I cannot endorse. And you're right on the crew sock trend as well. The only people who wore socks mid calf casually when we were young were from the West Coast. I will occasionally wear mid calf socks when I play basketball but that's more a function of avoiding blisters on my ankles from the shoes I'm wearing at the time.

mayhugh said...

It's really a silly concept that you've highlighted Mark, and I'm not sure I've ever stopped to think about it. Just because you happen to like/wear/display a product does not necessarily mean you support the entire organization that the hat stands for. I have an old Ford hat that I wear when I fish. The hat is multipurpose - it keeps the sun and sweat out of my eyes, it protects a bit from sunburn, and it makes me feel a little more country than I actually am. Then dudes approach me wanting to talk about pickup trucks (when I have a standard grocery getter produced by an overseas company).

Mark said...

Good point, Mayhugh. It's one thing if someone is wearing a Greenpeace shirt or a Livestrong hat or something along those lines. But sports teams, or other brands. Maybe I just like the way it looks.

I work out in a Purdue Football shirt because I bought it for $3 at a Nike outlet, it looks cool and a high school teammate played WR there. Do I give a fuck about Purdue Football? Not in the least.

rob said...

in contravention to my blue jays hat story, i do enjoy wearing my appalachian state 3-time 1-aa national champions t-shirt.

zman said...

I wear a Norfolk State tshirt frequently, not because I root for or endorse the school but because I predicted they would pull the rare 15-2 upset over Missouri, rob called me an idiot, and my idiocy turned out to be accurate. Ever the gentleman, rob sent me the shirt. I'm probably the only guy in town who plays tennis in a tshirt bearing the name of a HBCU.

Mark said...

I'm down with wearing the gear of plenty of schools other than Florida. No other SEC schools though.

Shlara said...

I have a Tiger Woods logo hat that I acquired 6 months before he self-destructed. Never wearing it again.

Shlara said...

Is anyone else geeking out & watching USA Basketball team practice on NBA TV? No? Just me?

Marls said...

Apparently Andre Reid does not like Bon Jovi. Read down to the bottom for a ridiculous upstate New Yorker quote.....


http://nypost.com/2014/07/29/bills-great-andre-reed-man-f-k-bon-jovi/

T.J. said...

Marls, do not gloss over this choice quote either:

“He won’t be wanted dead or alive,” a fan wrote on the group’s Facebook page. “He will be dead.”

T.J. said...

zman, Saturday, September 20th - the Wu Tang is coming to Barclays

Mark said...

I would geek out and watch Team USA Basketball practice, Shlara, if I was near a TV.


Im psyched for the FIBA World Championships (not calling it the World Cup). Less psyched to see us lose to Spain.

Shlara said...

FYI--Coach K has Durant, Beal & Wall on the same team for today's scrimmage... a little preview of the Wizards starting lineup in 2016.

Dave said...

i made a pledge wear in a seahawks hat for a semester-- he had to wear it whenever he was in public-- and he always had to deal with people asking him if he was a fan. that was about as wild as i got with hazing people.

rob said...

wizards fans thinking kd is coming home are so cute.

TR said...

I saw an ESPN story lead y/day: "Are the Vikings using Adrian Peterson correctly in preseason?" Made me realize I was already fed up with NFL coverage.

Premier League starts in 18 days...

zman said...

The confluence of Jovi/Wu-Tang/Bills comments just gave me palpitations.

Shlara said...

Rob, don't stomp on my dream.

And basketball fans, read this Zach Lowe piece on Kyle Korver.

Three of my favorite comments:

1. Still, dealing Korver wasn’t easy. He was already among the league’s best shooters and a beloved figure in the Philadelphia community, where Korver had started a foundation to benefit inner-city kids. “Our community relations manager was literally in tears when I told her,” Stefanski says.<---Definitely something I did for a few players back in the day


2. “He has great life skills,” Elliott says. “With some guys, you don’t know if they are going to show up on time. Maybe they’ll take a last-minute trip to the Bahamas with a girl they met last night. Kyle has none of that nonsense around him.”

3. Korver and four friends decided to go back to the Channel Islands, find an 85-pound rock, and run a collective 5K holding the thing underwater

http://grantland.com/features/kyle-korver-nba-atlanta-hawks/

Mark said...

Loved that piece, Shlara. Korver's dedication to self improvement is impressive. I was always in the "he'll be a good spot shooter and nothing else" camp with Korver. He's become much more.

Lowe is the best. How he'd write about the way Korver's movement creates offense and then back it up with gifs of the movement in the piece is great for basketball nerds.

On a personal note, Korver has become friends with a friend of mine I grew up with who founded To Write Love on Her Arms, a great organization focused on youth depression and suicide.

Korver is very easy to root for.

TR said...

Ditto on Korver. Sooo easy to prejudge a white guy who can shoot. And I hated him for his high socks, which is ridiculous but how I roll.

TR said...

Joe Buck is doing the Yanks-Rangers game on FS1. Having to hear him before October is cruel and unusual punishment.

rob said...

that's a cool story. the part about the underwater 5k, though, that's insane.

zman said...

This is a cool story too. Next time I'm in Atlanta I'll try to hang with John Abraham, but we'll take a cab.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/11281208/john-abraham-arizona-cardinals-passed-wheel-according-police-report

Squeaky said...

Hi Gheorghies. West coast check in. So not too late.

Mark said...

W&M plays Florida in basketball in Gainesville this season. Who's meeting me there?

rob said...

what's the date on that, mark?