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Mets Bloggers Not Fans of Red Hats

By Andrew Beaton on July 4, 2009 at 8:53 pm  

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There has been some criticism of the red hats that have been worn around baseball, from a few Mets bloggers.

Over at Kiner’s Korner, Gene Anthony lambastes MLB for attempting to, “capitalize on every friggin’ opportunity to make a dollar.” At Mets Blog, Michael Baron (no, not the famous Scrabble player) says, “i am all for patriotism, but frankly it looks like every Met was traded to the Phillies…”

Yet, if you are curious, the hats are not some desperate attempt to steal a few extra bucks from baseball fans.  The hats are in honor of a charity, Welcome Back Veterans, with the proceeds from all purchases of those caps going to the charity.  Go to MLB.com, to read the official press release.

Welcome Back Veterans is an initiative launched by Major League Baseball and the McCormick Foundation that aims to improve the life of United States veterans, who often struggle with employment and various mental health issues after serving in the army. To donate, go to the McCormick foundation, who along with MLB have covered all overhead so that all dollars donated go directly to programs and services for veterans.  If you would like to buy the hat, go to the shop on MLB.com.

Maybe the hats are tacky, but they are not an attempt to steal a few extra bucks from fans.


Posted in News and featimage • Comments



  • Great charity but if they simply allowed the teams to replace the color of the logo with the American flag, I think it would look so much better.
  • rob
    the red hats with the mets unis is hideous, a serious eye sore.

    i dont realize why they just cant make the NYM on the caps in red white and blue. would look alot better
  • Are you serious with this headline? Who are you, Bill O'Reilly? Give me a break. Just removed Hot Foot from my RSS.
  • I believe many Mets bloggers including myself did not know that these hats were raising charity for our veterans and active duty service members. I only learned about it this morning after reading a post on Mets Today.

    I didn't choose to blog about the hats because I thought it was cool to acknowledge the national holiday with red hats, and even the pink bats on moms day.

    But I'd bet anything that those Mets blogs that did knock the hats, had no idea about the charity aspect behind them.
  • Charity? What's that have to do with it?

    Guaranteed, Fred Wilpon and his foundation would raise a hell of lot more money if they tailored the hats to each teams colors. Or made them all plain white. Or either blue red or white to match. Or blue red and white.

    I'm sure some Phillies, Cardinals, Angels, Reds, etc fans bought hats. I'm also sure many Mets fans, even those that buy/wear/like hats, didn't buy this one. I'd rather pay twice the price of the hat and donate it to the charity directly than wear that disaster hat. Not to mention, it's getting to be over the top. They did the hat thing for Memorial Day already. Pink bats, blue bats (being talked about for Father's Day) red hats, ALS reenactments.. It's a fine line, and we're getting closer and closer to corporate sponsored bases, bats, uniforms. Is it that much of a stretch from Pink bats to support breast cancer to pink bats to promote Lipton's new pink lemonade product?
  • AndrewBeaton
    Ok, well the headline was intended to be facetious - apologies to those who didn't pick up on that. Like I said, the hats are tacky - I'm just pointing out that it's unfair to criticize MLB for trying to pinch an extra penny out of the fans. Sorry to those that took the original headline too seriously. I wasn't actually irate at the confusion people had with the hats, I was sort of just poking fun at the misunderstanding.
  • If it's so obvious that it was meant facetiously, then why did you change the headline?
  • Andrew_Beaton
    Well, the jokiness apparently wasn't obvious and that's where my fault lies and for what I apologize. My seeming lack of clarity has seemingly upset some people, and ticking people off was never my goal.
  • Then it's on MLB for not making the info about the donations absolutely clear. Some of us caught it, but it reeks of a standard MLB marketing ploy.

    And allowing teams to change the logos to a red, white, and blue pattern instead of red hats would have at least not made any player without red in their uniform look silly.
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