MLB, the Mets, the Hats, and September 11
Apparently, Major League Baseball really doesn’t want teams wearing caps other than their official team hats. The latest flap occurred when the New York Mets wanted to mark the 10th anniversary of September 11th by wearing caps marked FDNY, NYPD, and other city agencies involved in emergency response on 9/11. Major League Baseball said no, so the Mets decided to wear the caps just during batting practice. Then, according to an in-game tweet from R.A. Dickey, officials came in the fourth inning and took their non-Mets hats.
Joe Torre, Executive Vice President of Operations for MLB, cited recent precedent for the decision, when MLB denied the Washington Nationals’ request to wear caps honoring Navy SEALS a month ago, after a number of SEALs died in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The Nats wore the caps during batting practice instead. At the time, the Washington Post paraphrased MLB’s rationale, according to a spokesman:
The league prefers its clubs commemorate specific causes with uniform patches or batting-practice displays, rather than the actual game hats… “We reserve hats for national tributes, where every club is wearing them on the same day,” spokesman Pat Courtney told me.
But that’s inconsistent with recent history, as Paul Lucas at Uni-Watch demonstrated. Back in 2007, the Nationals wore Virginia Tech caps in remembrance of victims of the tragedy at that school. And this year, on Earth Day, the Minnesota Twins wore special green Earth Day caps.
Alright, so maybe Major League Baseball changed its policy really recently and just didn’t tell anyone. Still, understandably, emotions have been running high. Bud Selig was angry that the Mets took the flap public, apparently claiming the team had thrown him “under the bus.” Many New Yorkers were just as angry that Major League Baseball forbade the team from memorializing the first responders who perished as a result of the tragedy.
But it’s not hard to suspect $lightly ba$er motive$, as Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes: “For what it’s worth, New Era, which manufactured the American flag hats used in all MLB games Sunday, said it would not have objected to the Mets wearing first responder hats, as the team so memorably did in 2001… [But] it is difficult not to conclude that MLB, tempted by memorabilia money, made an odious calculation.”
But MLB wasn’t the only party making a monetary calculation. The New York Post reported another possible reason the Mets decided to nix wearing NYPD and FDNY caps during the game:
Another source said Mets COO Jeff Wilpon was “back and forth” with the commissioner’s office on the matter until the proverbial 11th hour, when it was decided the Mets, on the hook for a $25 million loan from MLB, shouldn’t risk the wrath of Selig.
Most Mets past and present did not support their team’s decision to comply with the league edict. David Wright told the Daily News, “If we had a vote, we would wear the hats.” The same article quoted John Franco and Todd Zeile, who played for the Mets in 2001 when they wore first responder caps despite MLB telling them otherwise, urging confrontation. Franco said, “MLB said we couldn’t wear them – we said the heck with that… They (the current Mets) should do that, too, and pay whatever the fine is.” That’s what Josh Thole, the team’s representative to the union, said the same thing before the game: “What are they going to do, they gonna fine us?”
By contrast, several NFL players wore 9/11 tribute equipment from Reebok and expected to be fined, but in the end the league announced it wouldn’t fine anybody. That was the right decision, and if MLB had made it, they would have avoided this controversy — and Selig would have avoided making the disgusting accusation that a New York team that wanted to honor the victims of September 11 had in some way thrown the league “under the bus.”
As commissioner, Bud Selig has increased baseball revenue to tremendous heights. Last year, according to a trade publication, MLB licensing revenue was projected to beat NFL licensing revenue for the fourth straight year. Selig’s knack for making people richer is a good reason why he is already the second-longest-tenured commissioner ever, counting his six-year run as acting commissioner following Fay Vincent’s resignation. But he isn’t particularly popular with baseball fans.
(That said, baseball fans opposed to Bud Selig are about as well-organized as The People’s Front of Judea and the People’s Judean Front, as can be seen from four Facebook pages dedicated to his removal:
Baseball Fans for the Resignation of Bud Selig — 34 likes
Remove Bud Selig as MLB Commisioner — 16 likes
Bud Selig should resign — 18 likes
1,000,000 petition who HATES Bud Selig and thinks he’s an idiot — 8 likes)
Selig understands business. But a tunnel focus on the business — as with baseball’s ridiculous ban on YouTube videos, making game footage of amazing plays absurdly hard to find — can have the counterproductive side effect of pissing off fans. Hey, baseball’s a business, and it should be run as one. But I doubt that any of baseball’s priorities would have been seriously harmed by just letting the Mets wear the FDNY and NYPD caps during the game, just as they weren’t harmed by letting the Nats wear Virginia Tech caps. MLB made the wrong choice, and as a result, they’re suffering the blowback in the court of public opinion. They deserve it.
Alex is a writer for The Hardball Times.
Good article, thanks. Love the Life of Brian reference.
To me, the whole thing is kind of silly. Personally, I don’t care what hat the Mets wear, but I also don’t understand why MLB would deny their request to wear NYPD/NYFD hats in tribute to the 9/11 first responders. Are they worried about backlask from New Era? As if a company is going to raise a stink about their hats not being worn for 1 game by 1 team in tribute to 9/11, that would be some excellent PR! And if it was such an issue, how come no one had the foresight to commission New Era to make special hats for that game? Something similar to that Yankees hat from 2001 with the logo between PD and FD would have been rather appropriate.
I do take issue with Selig and MLB being reportedly ticked with the Mets. Despite my personal attitude towards the hats, a lot of people have a different perspective and wanted to see the team wearing them. Why should the Mets absorb the backlash for MLB’s action? Selig, you and your guys made the decision and now you get to own up for it.
I think that the league would be afraid that thousands of New York fans wouldn’t line up to buy their own red white and blue NY Mets hats.
They actually did make New Era hats for the game, but they were league-wide and incredibly boring-with an American flag patch on the hat instead of anything honoring the first responders or anything specifically related to the 9/11 tragedy.
Now, here’s the rub-they probably didn’t want to create anything too blatantly commemorating the 9/11 tragedy (for example, a cap with an image of the Twin Towers on it for New York teams) because it would look like they were trying to generate a profit exploiting the personal tragedy of thousands. That’s tasteless. But the MLB DID commission to make the flag-patch caps specifically to be worn on 9/11, so that people would buy replicas of those hats in order to make a profit. So…the MLB is kind of tasteless, they’re just trying not to be obvious about it.
What’s great is that there was an easy work-around: Get New Era to design multiple caps and gear that would commemorate whatever you wanted (NYPD, FDNY, Twin Towers, whatever), let the players have their pick of the gear, and then publicly announce that it’s to raise proceeds for the 9/11 victims fund, or to help pay pensions for New York firefighters, or whatever. MLB comes off looking good, fans can feel good about buying the gear, and the Mets could get some positive national attention despite playing meaningless September games while wallowing in debt.
I blame Beltran.
It’s all about the cash, as ususal.
Wilpon and Selig are inept. If it involved any two other baseball businesspeople, a compromise would’ve been reached. For instance, MLB could’ve stood by its silly rule and “fined” the players/team, but allowed the fines to be donated to appropriate 9-11/FDNY/NYPD charities.
Man, if only MLB had allowed SOME kind of tribute to 9/11 (Maybe some kind of extensive on-field tribute with the NYPD and FDNY represented) we could all get past the fact that MLB didn’t let the Mets players go through with a scrapped-together tribute of their own.
Yeah, the lack of any reference to 9/11 during that Mets game was absolutely appalling. I don’t watch baseball because I like to watch baseball, I watch baseball because I like to watch athletes commemorate national tragedies.
Context: in NYC, at a prominent public event on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In that context, you can argue it’s offensive not to have any kind of ceremony or tribute.
I really can’t tell if you (and Yirmiyahu) are being sarcastic toward cpebbles obviously sarcastic comment or not. There was an extra-long pre-game ceremony and the Mets players wore PD-/FDNY hats pre-game.
Am I the only one who was thinking when this had all happened thinking “damn now I have to see another Alex Remington story on fangraphs”?
If I was the first thing you thought of when MLB screwed up on September 11, then… I’m kind of flattered, I guess.
But, you know, you don’t “have” to see anything I write.
The only thing worse than Remington’s articles is his need to respond to anyone and everyone who criticizes his writing.
I realize that I’m supporting your point by responding to you, but it wouldn’t be particularly interesting if I only responded to people who agree with me. So I don’t do it that often, and instead I respond to people who have a bone to pick.
Am I the only one, whenever I click on an Alex Remington article on fangraphs, whose first thought is, “damn, the racist/sexist/ignorant trolls of the internet are going to come out of the woodwork again” ?
why would racist/sexist/ignorant trolls even reply in a baseball article?
Bruce, America’s infrastructure is collapsing and they’re running out of bridges.
So teams should just be allowed to wear whatever they want, whenever they want?
If not, where do you draw the line? Who gets to draw it?
I’m sure Major League Baseball is not the only profession in the US that would be against its employee’s wearing NYPD/FDNY hats while on the job.
Yes, obviously this exception to commemorate 9/11 would have led us down the slipperiest of slopes that ended with players wearing all camouflage and cross dressing on Wednesdays.
The Padres already crossed the line on the former, and every MLB rookie ever has been guilty of the latter.
Hopefully, someone less tone deaf than Bud Selig should get to draw the line.
Splitters!
Didn’t all of MLB wear green hats for Earth Day? I know my Indians did when they played the Twins. They were both wearing green hats and jerseys tinted with green. It was rather awkward and a little confusing.
from the article:
But that’s inconsistent with recent history, as Paul Lucas at Uni-Watch demonstrated. Back in 2007, the Nationals wore Virginia Tech caps in remembrance of victims of the tragedy at that school. And this year, on Earth Day, the Minnesota Twins wore special green Earth Day caps.
i also recall it being more than just minnesota, but it’s possible my memory is failing me. fortunately, i’m too lazy to do research so this won’t really be a problem
also, rereading your comment i realize you probably did not miss the sentence that i thought you did. apologies for assuming reading incomprehension
I’m from Baseball Fans for the Resignation of Bud Selig, and the only thing worse than Bud Selig is the Remove Bud Selig as MLB Commisioner people.
The Yankees (remember, Joe Torre’s old team) wore first responders hats in Anaheim that day. So how much are they being fined? Oh wait! I forgot, Derek Jeter has an edge…
i have to think that MLB was more bark than bite here…they didn’t want the mets to wear the hats but i would be really surprised if they were dumb enough to actually fine them had the mets followed through
I heard the “flag” caps are selling for $36.99 on MLB.com.
Wilpon should have told Selig where to go, sucked it up and paid whatever fine there was.
Instead, he folded like a $36.99 suit.