On how to properly wear a new Cubs cap

The Brooklyn Excelsiors wore the first "baseball caps" in the 1860's, when the game was still in its infancy. Originally, the caps were made of wool and were far floppier than the baseball caps we have today. Latex was first used to stiffen baseball caps when the Cubs won their last pennant in the 40's, and the contemporary baseball cap had its genesis.

The history of baseball caps is fairly undisputed, but there is one thing that has been continually challenged since the inception of the baseball cap: how to properly wear one. In modern years, trends and fashions have continued to evolve (or devolve, depending one who you ask) to include a seemingly numberless amount of ways to wear the classic baseball cap. For example, when I was growing up there was only one way to wear a baseball cap if you were "cool":
...ack basswards. Although this made the bill useless for fulfilling its intended purpose, man was it cool. It showed a stringent rebelliousness and provided a physical way to "stick it to the man", whoever the "man" may be. Wearing a cap this way and having this expression usually go hand in hand. The days of my youth have passed, however. Now there is a new fad:
...keeping the stickers on the cap. Every time I see this on a Leader of Tomorrow I cringe a little inside. Why would anyone want to keep the stickers and tags on their hat? Is there something I'm not getting here? I think keeping the stickers on your hat is indicative of some kind of deep and debilitating mental illness that no amount of pills can cure. I think its called "adolescence". So, call me a traditionalist, but this is how I choose to wear my new Cubs cap:
...front and center, with the bill gently curved like the the arc of the summer sky. Cub agrees:

...but the proper sizing of a baseball cap is a subject for another post.

The Chosen One?

Photo by John Antonoff

Cactus League Opener

Today, while I was huddling inside and praying that the freezing rain wouldn't wash the house away, the Cubs took to the field under jewel blue skies to battle the Oakland A's in their Cactus League opener. Unfortunately no one seemed to think that the game was worth its price in video footage, so I had to content myself with reading about the game after the fact. It sounds as if it was a good game, the Cubs dominating with a 9-3 win. Derrik Lee hammered a homer during his first at-bat, but who could expect him to do anything less? Newcomer Marlon Byrd apparently showed himself well, and youngin' Starlin Castro tripled late in the game to prove that there may indeed be something behind all of the hype.

Spring Training play officially began this week, with several exhibition games unfolding in sunny Arizona and Florida. I watched portions of two games (though, as stated earlier, someone dropped the ball and decided not to televise the Cubs opener.) The first was the Yankees opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates; one of the most highly paid ball clubs versus one of the lowest. The Pirates showed themselves well against the Yanks, but (in typical Yankee fashion) a end-of- game comeback sealed the Pirates' fates and left the Yankees with their pinstripes and pompous sneers in tact (here's hoping that number 28 never comes). The second game was today's match between the Angels and the White Sox (otherwise known to the author of this blog as "that other Chicago ball club".) I would liked to have seen the White Sox suffer a double digit shutout so that they would come into Saturday's match against the Cubbies with hunched shoulders and tear-stained faces. Unfortunately, I had to content myself with a late-game comeback from the Angels and a 4-4 tie.

I know that Spring Training games amount to absolutely nothing, but I do like their symbolic strength. With each crack of the bat and thump of the glove Winter seems to flee further away, retreating to whatever frostbitten place it calls its home. Baseball is as much a clarion for the approaching Spring as budding trees and swelling rivers.

Cub napped through both of this week's games (and I joined him during the Yankee-Pirates game) so that he could be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for Saturday's match. Not even three booming thunderclaps could wake him as he lay dreaming of ivied walls and rippling new pennants...