There are a lot of great baseball hats that are in the game today. There are a lot of bad ones too, but it seems like teams have found an opportunity to put their brand on just about everybody who wants to show their loyalty to their hometown in caps.
In Episode Seven-Point-Five: Hats, Hats, Hats of the Baseball Together Podcast, Brig, Tiff, and I all listed a few of our favorite and least favorite hats. For now, this is the list of my five favorite hats as well as an honorable mention. You’ll find that both MLB and MiLB hats are on this list. Check back soon for my list of hats I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing. They’re that bad.
Best Baseball Hats
Montreal Expos
Yes, the Montreal Expos have been relocated to Washington D.C. and renamed the Nationals. However, the legend of the Expos lives on with cap heads (is that the name for baseball hat snobs?) because of the flashy tricolor scheme that holds tight to the white front panel. Additionally, the side and rear panels are a bright red with a royal blue squatchee (the button on top) that matches the bill. The team colors pop all over the place on this hat with the unique logo sits prominent on the white front panel. There are few hats through the history of MLB that have been so flashy as that of the now defunct Expos.
Bradenton Marauders
Let me briefly preface my description for this hat with one of my many obsessions. I love history, especially the age of piracy. It’s not the pillaging and plundering that gets me. Having grown up learning how to sail, it’s really the maritime lifestyle that appeals to me. Now, the Bradenton Marauders are the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates, so it’s somewhat expected that there is a pirate theme throughout their minor league system. The Marauders are no exception and the logo on the front of this hat is a bearded pirate captain. I’m in love with the all black gameday hat and can’t get my hands on one of these soon enough.
The Marauders have another excellent hat that has a black crown with a yellow bill and squatchee. However, the logo is a grinning skull with an eye patch and crossed bats behind it. Amazing.
Arizona Diamondbacks
I’m a big fan of alternate hats. Whether it’s a batting practice hat or a special gameday hat for the weekend, alternate hats are a nice change of pace. The Arizona Diamondbacks have one of the best alternate logos in MLB and have put it on a fantastic cap. This hat has a black crown with a Sedona red bill and squatchee, but the logo is what makes it. The logo used on the front of this particular hat is the alternate snake logo. The red snake really pops against the black crown and has a fresh look.
Auburn Doubledays
The first thing that’s great about the Auburn Doubledays is the name. The city name is the perfect play on the first name of the man credited as the father of the great game of baseball, Abner Doubleday. Secondly, I love how the Doubledays have taken a period-appropriate handlebar mustache and used it to cross the ‘A’ on the front of the gameday hat. This logo is available in an all-red alternate hat, but what that really attracts me to this cap is the two-tone color scheme with the navy crown paired with the red bill and matching squatchee.
Seattle Mariners
OK, so the Seattle Mariners changed their Spring Training hat coming into the 2019 season. The new hat is a capital ‘M’ with a compass rose behind it. As great as this design is, this isn’t the one.
As a lifelong Mariners fan, I’ve had the compass rose and silver ‘S’ logo for the majority of my life. It’s tired and needs to be changed. A welcomed change came a few years ago when the M’s revealed the old upside down trident from the ‘80s with the current color scheme. I about lost my marbles. This was too good. The trident is silver with a teal outline and it’s on a navy blue crown with a teal bill. This is by far my favorite hat I’ve ever owned in my entire life and will continue to be until the Mariners use the same color scheme on the ‘70s trident and star logo. But as far as current and recent hats go, this takes the cake for me.
Honorable Mention
Atlanta Braves
The Atlanta Braves have had a lot of great baseball caps over the years. They’ve had an amazing blue hat with a white front panel and lowercase ‘a.’ They’re still using the all navy and two-tone red-navy home and away hats, which are very sharp. Another great one the Braves currently wear is the two-tone alternate that crosses the ‘A’ with a tomahawk.
However, the best hat they’ve had in recent memory is the current batting practice hat. It’s a solid navy blue hat with a navy tomahawk that’s outlined in red with accents placed on the front panel. I’m not sure what it is about this hat that particularly attracts me to it, but I love the simplicity of the tomahawk against the start navy. It’s a clean, fresh change from the swooping ‘A.’ If my closet wasn’t already crammed with navy and red, this baseball hat would be an obvious addition to the hat rack.
What are you favorite baseball hats? What’s a hat that a team is using in their current rotation that you love and need to have on your head? Let us know in the comments below.
