Billy Reeds Man Cave – Baseball Hattiquitte

I’m not sure I’m right about this, but it seems that the horrible practice of wearing baseball caps backwards may be on the decline. If so, this is a trend that should be supported by right-thinking Americans everywhere.

Bills were put on baseball caps in order to shade fielders’ eyes from the sun while they were tracking fly balls on hot summer afternoons. The bills also provided something players could use to tip their hats to the crowds, a way to acknowledge the applause after a home run or some other sensational play.

The concept worked perfectly well until the 1990s, when some dufus, probably a dreaded hip-hopper, decided it would be cool, or something, to wear his baseball cap backwards. This trend became as popular with young people as tattoos, which is a rant for another day.

I have never seen anybody wearing a baseball hat backwards who didn’t look like a total moron. I supposed you could make the case that wearing the hat backwards means the bill was being used to keep certain red necks from becoming even redder. That may be true, but the look is still gag-worthy.

Nobody could wear a baseball cap quite as well as Mickey Mantle, the 1950s and ‘60s icon of the New York Yankees. The bell bent to give a curved effect – flat bills are downright geeky-looking – the Mick peered out at the world with a sort of shaded imperiousness that millions of boys, including yours truly, tried desperately to emulate.

So we can only hope that, at least in the area of baseball caps, the new cool is the old cool. The bills should shade the eyes, not the neck. I’m sure you can find that somewhere in the Constitution.