green rhino123
That vintage 1990 photo got my mind thinking, Just how far have you come from having just two teams in the majors having two sets of hats.
On the onset, it feels like every team has 15 caps and identities are being lost. I was a bit surprised by my findings.
Using
https://uniformlineup.com/ I compared a five year span. First 2017, and then 2012.
My basis was any cap worn more than 10 times was designated by me as a prominent cap (I know there are some teams that have official alternates that get worn once a year).
Let's see 2017.
I split it up into #1 of prominent caps per team
9 total with 1 cap
1 Boston- 147 all navy blue
1 Chicago (AL)- 136 all black
1 Chicago (NL)- 145 all blue
1 Los Angeles (AL)- 146 all red
1 Los Angeles (NL)- 133 all blue
1 Miami- 147 all black 9
1 New York (AL)- 146 all navy blue
1 San Francisco- 142 all black
1 Tampa Bay- 145 all navy blue
--------------
12 total with 2 caps
2 Atlanta - 73 navy/red- 69 all navy blue
2 Cincinnati- 72 red/black- 70 all red
2 Colorado- 74 black/purple- 71 all black
2 Detroit- 75 navy/white D- 70 navy/orange D
2 Houston- 82 all navy blue- 55 navy/orange
2 Kansas City- 130 all blue/white KC- 14 all blue/gold KC
2 Oakland- 75 all dark green white A- 71 dark green/yellow
2 Philadelphia- 130 all red- 11 blue/red
2 Pittsburgh- 87 all black/yellow P- 40 all black/yellow P white outline
2 San Diego- 124 navy/white SD- 13 yellow/brown
2 Texas- 108 all blue- 37 all red
2 Toronto - 129 all royal blue- 13 white/blue
-----------------
7 total with 3 caps
3 Arizona-69 black/red gradient- 48 black/red/teal- 21 black/red snake
3 Baltimore- 61 white/black/orange cartoon bird- 59 black/orange cartoon bird- 22 black/orange cursive O
3 Cleveland- 68 navy/red wahoo- 47 navy wahoo- 21 navy block C
3 Milwaukee- 99 all navy wheat M- 30 all navy glove MB- 17 all royal blue MB
3 New York (NL)- 114 all blue/orange NY- 22 all blue/silver NY- 10 all blue/orange NY white outline
3 Seattle- 119 all navy- 12 navy/PNW green- 11 blue/yellow
3 St. Louis- 117 all red- 19 all navy blue- 10 navy/red bird
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2 total with 4 caps
4 Minnesota- 72 navy/red TC- 26 all navy TC gold outline- 23 all navy TC- 22 navy/red TC gold outline
4 Washington- 76 navy/red W- 33 all red W- 19 red/navy blue W flag- 11 navy/red W flag
And for 2012, we retroactively look at the following
11 total with 1 cap
Boston 1
Chicago (NL) 1
Kansas City 1
Los Angeles (AL) 1
Los Angeles (NL) 1
Miami 1
Milwaukee 1
New York (AL) 1
New York (NL) 1
Tampa Bay 1
Toronto 1
------------------------
15 total with 2 caps
Arizona 2
Atlanta 2
Chicago (AL) 2
Cincinnati 2
Colorado 2
Detroit 2
Houston 2
Oakland 2
Philadelphia 2
Pittsburgh 2
San Diego 2
San Francisco 2
Seattle 2
Texas 2
Washington 2
-------------------
4 total with 3 caps
Baltimore 3
Cleveland 3
Minnesota 3
St. Louis 3
And zero with 4
Tl;Dr
To compare 2012 to 2017
11 teams with 1 cap in 2012. 9 in 2017
15 teams with 2 caps in 2012. 12 in 2017.
4 teams with 3 caps in 2012. 7 in 2017.
0 teams with 4 caps in 2012. 2 in 2017.
We're definitely trending towards more variety. But it's not so bad yet. The one offs make it worse than it really is.
