12/6/10 Hat of the Day

1993-1998 Cincinnati Reds Home Cap

(First of all, allow me to introduce myself: I'm the Fitted Cap Fiend. I'm a hat savant, and this blog's mission is to share the love of the most iconic piece of equipment on a baseball field, something that everybody from the fans, to the managers, to the players wears whenever they decide to spend a day at the ballpark: The baseball cap. So, kick back & enjoy the show. If you want more action, follow me on twitter @FittedCapFiend, and/or subscribe to my tumblr at tumblr.com/fittedcapfiend if you want some random pictures of caps and people in those caps.)

Now, today's Hat of the Day is a somewhat forgotten classic in my opinion, the 1993-1998 Cincinnati Reds Home Cap. It's widely accepted that the Cincinnati Reds solid red cap with the wishbone C is one of the more iconic hats in baseball. It was the trademark of the 70s Big Red Machine, and after a brief flirtation with the sultry mistress known as the color black during the late '90s & early '00s, the franchise got back to their senses and were able to marginalize the black, therefore letting black be a great compliment to an already classic sports identity, instead of letting black dominate it.

But I digress. THIS RIGHT HERE is what we came to see.

Credit: sportslogos.net

In 1993 (almost immediately after what WAS the most recent successful era in Reds history) let's just say that the Reds got a little pinstripe crazy. It extended to the away uniform, & that's where the classic hat went to hide. Instead, the home fans got this: A pinstriped hat to match the pinstriped uniforms. I don't know about you, but to me, this is a slam dunk. It was unique, it made the Reds stand out, and it still had a bit of an old time charm to it that made it one of my favorite baseball looks.

Of course, this wasn't exactly perfect. As good of a design as it was on paper, it wasn't the best idea for that time on the field. As some of you may have know, you take a hot Cincinnati summer & add into it the effect of Riverfront Stadium's astroturf making the temperature & field level even hottter, and what do you get? Sweat. The players' sweat led to the stripes running, and by the mid-to-late innings of the game, the pinstriped hats would turn pink. Yeah, not a good look at all. But without the sweat making the colors run, it's a solid hat.

For 5 years, this was the look of that adorned the heads of Cincinnati Reds in the field of Riverfront Stadium. I say 'in the field,' because they still wore all-red batting helmets. Although the Reds are long done with this hat and pinstripes in general, I'm not. I still remember. Those hats were the only reason I played with the Reds in Ken Griffey Jr. Baseball on the Nintendo 64.  Those hats were the reason why the Reds were a third favorite team of mine, behind the Griffey Mariners & the Atlanta Braves. Good times, great memories, nice hat.