New Era losing their marbles...

[Vicious]

yeah, im about sick of everything mtv/vh1/the radio plays. i like rap, hip-hop, rock, classic rock, emo, you name it, i like it. except for most country. but pretty much from james taylor to ludacris thats me.

i think the hats are kind of cool. im into the whole "its so gaudy its kinda cool." look. maybe thats why i bought these basketball shoes:

anyway, its not like they are changing all of the hats to that style. there will still be the good ol classics. i say if it brings more people to baseball, or any other sport, than why not?

[DG_ThenNowForever]

My point is that although folks younger than me may understand the references, I just don't see why anyone would expect them to care. I mean, I would understand a reference to "Little Joe" as referring to Michael Landon's character on Bonanza, even though the show went off the air just before I was born. But would I ever be interested in buying any Bonanza merchandise, for any reason? No, absolutely not. And the cultural referents that go into these caps seem to be in about the same class with relation to the folks New Era is trying to reach as a Bonanza-themed product would be for people my age.

Everything old is new again, everything old is ironic and ironic is in, and you must have missed the whole throwback thing.

That, and nothing of cultural value has been created since MTV became what it is and ClearChannel took over the world. Sucks, huh?

[BallWonk]

My point is that although folks younger than me may understand the references, I just don't see why anyone would expect them to care. I mean, I would understand a reference to "Little Joe" as referring to Michael Landon's character on Bonanza, even though the show went off the air just before I was born. But would I ever be interested in buying any Bonanza merchandise, for any reason? No, absolutely not. And the cultural referents that go into these caps seem to be in about the same class with relation to the folks New Era is trying to reach as a Bonanza-themed product would be for people my age.

Everything old is new again, everything old is ironic and ironic is in, and you must have missed the whole throwback thing.

That, and nothing of cultural value has been created since MTV became what it is and ClearChannel took over the world. Sucks, huh?

I'm as throwbacky as the next guy, and I was embracing camp with ironic detachment years before that sort of thing became mainstream. But thatpose only really makes sense when you're either throwing back to something from your own remembered past -- the difference, for people about my age, between throwing a party to air DVDs of CHiPs or Schoolhouse Rock and doing the same for Bonanza -- or throwing back to something much older, like '50s lounge music, if you were born in the '70s. Stuff from the decade or so immediately before you were aware of the popular culture is supposed to be the definition of uncool. That's been an ironclad rule of youth-culture coolness for about sixty years now. If you liked it as a child, it's cool forever. If your parents would have thought it was square, it's cool now. But if your parents thought it was cool, then it's lame forever. Until you turn 30, of course, when the rules change to, if it existed before you turned 25, it's cool, and if it was created anytime since then, it's incomprehensibly stupid. (Which reaction only reinforces the coolness of the new for the younger generation, and so on: It's the basic cycle of life that has fueled American pop culture since WWII.)

But who knows, maybe I've missed a cultural change, and for today's young adults lame is the new cool. Which, if true, would make these caps an example of genius-level demographic merchandising. Maybe New Era's next cap can feature a boxy computer-drawn refrigerator deliveryman in primary colors. Or maybe those two old ladies from the "Where's the Beef?" ads, or Bruce Jenner with a fuzzy headband.

[yh]

Maybe New Era's next cap can feature a boxy computer-drawn refrigerator deliveryman in primary colors.

I certainly hope that you recognize the chuckle-inducing relevance (on at least two fronts) of this remark.

[CC97]

I gotta say I agree with the people who are infavor of the hat being left the way it is on the field. I could be wrong but it all started with that red Yankess hat that Fred Durst (I can't beleive I just wrote his name ) wore back in what, 99? My mom get me a red Yankess hat for christmas around then, and when I took it back to Lids, the guy said, "Are you crazy, this is the hottest hat around!"

I remember a baseball teammate of mine showing up with a red Yankees cap with the NY in navy and white outlines in '95 or '96 and just thinking it was the most pointless and stupidest cap I ever saw.

Ten years later...

[fiasco!]

i am NOT a racist.

but i HATE hip hop culture that seems to be overtaking us

i hate the fact its like "hip" to talk black like da shizzle in the hood, yo.

i hate every video on MTV

cause its 80% hip hop/rap

20% pop

I hate people who refuse to listen to new music because they're afraid they might enjoy it.

I hate when people feel the need to preface their statement with "i am NOT a racist".

Here's a novel idea: If you don't like something, don't buy it, don't watch it, don't listen to it, or just ignore it.

[yh]

I hate when people feel the need to preface their statement with "i am NOT a racist".

Here's a novel idea: If you don't like something, don't buy it, don't watch it, don't listen to it, or just ignore it, especially if it has anything to do with minorities or foreigners.

Joel, I'm shocked.

Actually, I agree. If you feel the need to preface your comments with "I am not a racist," then perhaps you should reevaluate what exactly you are saying . . . or the need to say it.

[leedsunited]

Maybe New Era's next cap can feature a boxy computer-drawn refrigerator deliveryman in primary colors.

I certainly hope that you recognize the chuckle-inducing relevance (on at least two fronts) of this remark.

Was this a freakin' DIRE STRAITS reference? Knopfler?

[Saturn]

The black is ugly. The white is okay at best.

[Guest]

I should say that I don't mean that people born after, say, 1980 don't actually know from the classic MTV ad or cassette tapes. I have a monumentally clueless much-younger kid brother born in '82, and even he gets all sorts of early 80s references that are before his time, just as I get all kinds of early '70s cultural references that I didn't actually experience firsthand. My point is that although folks younger than me may understand the references, I just don't see why anyone would expect them to care. I mean, I would understand a reference to "Little Joe" as referring to Michael Landon's character on Bonanza, even though the show went off the air just before I was born. But would I ever be interested in buying any Bonanza merchandise, for any reason? No, absolutely not. And the cultural referents that go into these caps seem to be in about the same class with relation to the folks New Era is trying to reach as a Bonanza-themed product would be for people my age.

I'd buy a Rawhide hat. Maybe even Sugarfoot. Sugarfoot, Sugarfoot, easy-lopin' cattle-ropin' Sugarfoot, carefree as the tumbleweeds, HA-CHA!

[BadSeed84]

Id buy one, lmao.

My problem with the astonaut hat, well other than I personallyw ould never buy one, is that the only thing different about it for each team is in the little ass flag.

[DEAD!]

... it's one small step for man... one giant step back for mankind...

[Guest]

DEAD! has such an endearingly corny sense of humor.

[dbackdiehard17]

What's MTV?

OOOOOOOOOOO u mean that station that plays music videos like 4 hours a day from like 3 am- 7 am or something like that, and then shows countless reality show re-runs for 20 straight hours. O, I guess I confused that for an actual channel with meaning. Oops.

The hat is horrible looking, but I must say, I read like every post on this topic and I could not stop laughing. Some of the things you guys say are flat out hillarious. Like I don't go on these forums with the expectations I will be cracking up, but man, you guys have some great lines.

Like this gem:

I'll rock a fashion hat every now and then...

But if I see anybody wearing that I'm calling them an idiot. Seriously, a damn spaceman on your head? WTF?

This topic all in all is funny. Because hip hop isn't going away any time soon. The fact is, our culture has bought into the whole hip hop thing. You have the people who love it, the people who were raised into it, and the people who want to get into it because they want to be "cool".

I'm not a big hip hop fan, i'll listen to it sometimes, but damn, there can be some type of variation once in a while.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

[leedsunited]

DEAD! has such an endearingly corny sense of humor.

I pissed myself over that lil bon mot of his.

[BadSeed84]

Whether this hat was for people that likes hip hop, rock, country, it would be stupid looking no matter what.

Hell if the astronaut had spikes on it giving the metal sign \m/ it would still be stupid as hell looking.

[Guest]

I have a hat that's targeted at fans of progressive rock. It fits like a pillow of winds beneath the sheltering sky.

[Bucks6thMan]

i am NOT a racist.

but i HATE hip hop culture that seems to be overtaking us

i hate the fact its like "hip" to talk black like da shizzle in the hood, yo.

i hate every video on MTV

cause its 80% hip hop/rap

20% pop

What? I just can't imagine why anyone would think you're a racist

[ElwoodCuse]

i think the hats are kind of cool. im into the whole "its so gaudy its kinda cool." look. maybe thats why i bought these basketball shoes:

Interesting that they brought these back. I neither liked them nor hated them, but I do remember their first go-round when I was in middle school.

[neo_prankster]

Seriously, MLB needs to revoke New Era's merchandising license this minute.