You know how you know you are getting old? When you realize that this will be the forth year that the MLB has had Stars and Stipes Hat. There will be soon be a generation of young fans cognitively aware to remember their collective first baseball game/season, and they will not know a season without this now silly promotion.
Anyway, if you have been living under a rock for the last four summers, the Stars and Stripes Hats are another example of nationalism in sports, where every teams puts aside their team colors for a day, and put on American themed hats, that you can also purchase for a considerable chunk of change. The hats help to “raise awareness for the Welcome Back Veterans Fund” (ie. no conclusive evidence that purchasing this hat actually helps anything)*.
Cynicism aside, the hats are often criticized because they also look terrible, and they don't match most team's uniform. The first incarnation of these hats where Navy Blue, the following year we saw Red. Last season was the first time different teams got different colors. Some teams got a white hat with a blue bill, other teams got a white hat with a red bill. This year, some teams will get a blue hat where the front panel is white, with a blue bill, and other teams will get the same thing, except with Red instead of Blue.
The Mets 2010 Hat.
The Mets 2011 Hat.
* I do recognize that the MLB donates $1 for every hat sold. However when the hat costs $37 dollars, what are you saying about yourself when you rationalize the purchase of this hat because it is donating $1.
