I promise I have searched TSD thoroughly and I cannot find even a reference to this topic.
What I’d like to know is there any specific code or protocol in the way a baseball cap is worn by young men, especially young African-American men? Is there a specific message or statement of social standing or position in a gang that is being conveyed or eluded to?
I see many different ways caps are worn on a daily basis, but I don’t know how to approach anyone to ask that question. Being a old white guy, I didn’t want to seem as if I was setting anyone up for some jkind of joke at the hat-wearer’s expense…
I ask you, Mr. Adams, is there a definite way of wearing a baseball cap? Does the way the cap is tilted on the skull denote some kind of hierarchy or status? Is there a rank based on the direction the bill is pointing?
It’s not about social standing or gangs, it’s about style. And chances are it’s a style in a rap video. Some “cool” rapper wears it a certain way and it’s copied by those who also like his style.
You don’t see old black guys doing this. I work with lots of African Americans and it’s always the young ones with the “odd” fashion choices. (Yeah I know when I was under 35 my fashion choices were odd too :))
All the men over say 35 are dressed like myself. It’s the young ones and it’s about fashion.
I suppose a gang could use the cap for a gang sign or such, but it’s usually about trying to look like a member of the “gansta crew”
There are, as you mention, gang affiliations in some cases (certainly not all). Raiders caps could indicate a Raiders fan or a member of the Latin Kings, for example. It’s certainly not cool to assume gang affiliation based on clothing, though. Unless, perhaps, an individual wears gang colors all the time and maybe has teardrop tatoos on his/her face… that would give me some pause…
As a rider on the OP - when did it become fashionable to leave the stickers on baseball caps? Every high school student I see wearing one has left the big round gold sticker on the bill. When did that start meaning something fashionable?
That has been discussed here before. To my recollection, it started in the mid 90s. You know how when a team wins a championship and while they are celebrating someone hands them brand new hats and shirts? The hats will still have stickers on them. They are emulating that.
This thread reminds me of a great little scene from The Wire.
Hauk and Carver are sitting in their car, and Hauk sees a young black kid walking by. The kid has his baseball cap turned 90 degrees to the right, so the visor is over his right ear.
Hauk: Let me ask you a question. Where do you guys get those hats with the bills over the ears like that? I go into all the city stores, and the only ones i could find are the ones with the bills in the front.
Kid: Nah, it’s the same; just turn it sideways on your head.
All the different possible variations on hat placement:
Backwards is fine, but pretty hard to find now. Come to think of it I can really only visualize mid-20s white males wearing their caps backwards.
Sideways is also fine, but an exact 90 degree rotation is hard to find too. Most of the time it’s turned at some angle between 45 and 90 degrees.
Front-facing bill turns out to be okay too, whoda thunk.
The brim of the cap must be flat as a board.
Caps with curved or bent brims are only worn by hicks.
Leaving the tag on your hat is cool, not only for the reason hajario mentioned, but also because it indicates you probably bought it more recently (tags wear quicker than the cap itself). Which leads us to…
Not is you are an athlete or sports fan, in which case the first thing you do is curve the brim. Despite what one major league reliever does, generally only an idiot walks on a ballfield with a flat brim.
The gold sticker shows you aren’t buying a counterfeit cap. Just like a mattress tag, there’s no reason to keep it, once you’ve bought the cap.
Almost all pro ballplayers curve the bill, and the degree of bend changes the way the cap fits your forehead. A few players, and a few coaches and managers wear 'em flat. I remember a pitcher named Tavares saying he didn’t want to obstruct his peripheral vision. His bill is worn absolutely flat.
Some TV announcers, bantering in the later innings, joke that left-handed pitchers seldom wear their caps strait.
Funny: I was once walking down a street in NYC on a very bright and sunny day. A small group of African American boys were walking right in front of me. One of the kids started complaining that the sun was so bright, he couldn’t see. Sure enough, his visor was in the back.
You must bend or fold the brim so that you can stuff the hat brim first into your back jeans pocket. Those of us who live in huge urban centers bend the brim to keep our hick cred.
It used to be so easy. If you wore it backwards, that meant you were the catcher and were about to put your mask on. Otherwise, you wore it the proper way.
Back in the 90’s Ken Griffey, Jr. practically had the backwards-cap look trademarked. He naturally wore his cap normally on the field but almost always wore it backwards for batting practice or on the cover of his Nintendo game or when he took part in the Home Run Derby at the All Star Game.
Nowadays, Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo is the backwards ballcap poster boy.
