Baseball hats have become bigger than baseball

	Have cap, will travel. Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

An ode to baseball caps. "Oh, baseball cap . . ."

I know, I know: Why in the world am I talking about baseball caps at all, let alone in December, when it isn't baseball season?

But, you see, that's exactly the point. Baseball caps are now bigger than baseball. Around the world, they now may well even be the most familiar American artifact, passing Coca-Cola and blue jeans and bad movies. Think about it: How many baseball caps actually end up on the heads of baseball players? Why, I'd wager that people with baseball caps play baseball less than do people in tennis shoes play tennis or people in polo shirts play polo.

Not only that, but baseball caps have risen to preeminence at a time when headgear in general has been in decline. The fedora has gone the way of spats. The beret remains the favored choice of a few noggins, but as sure as English has replaced French as the language of diplomacy, so has the baseball cap swamped the beret sur la tete. The final indignity to Gallic pride.

Baseball caps have become so ubiquitous largely because women have taken to them, too. Name another hat that is so uni-sexual. This is largely because of the most brilliant clothing invention since the zipper, namely the hole in the rear of the baseball cap, so that ladies might let their glorious long locks stream through. The gap in the cap -- absolutely Dr. Seussian.

Actually -- I bet you never thought of this -- we shouldn't be surprised that women now wear baseball caps, because, as millinery experts have divined, the baseball cap, in shape and utility, is closest to the old-fashioned Victorian sun bonnet. Visualize that now. Right?

And it also helps the hegemony of baseball caps that they have the adjustor with the little holes in the back. This way, one size fits all. I have a pinhead. I had an old friend with a noggin the size of a watermelon. We called him the head of the school. But the two of us can buy the exact same baseball cap. Men, women, big heads, little heads. The baseball cap may be the most universal article of clothing ever designed.

Like all perfect creations, though, the baseball cap evolved. It apparently dates back to 1860, when it was referred to as "the Brooklyn style," the choice of a team known as the Excelsiors. But some early baseball caps sat up, blocky, like what tops the crowns of French gendarmes.

Others had tiny little visors. It wasn't until 1954 that the baseball cap was standardized in the major leagues. One of the ironic things about baseball caps is that so many people in other sports wear them. Tennis players and golfers wear baseball caps. Quarterbacks put them on as soon as they take off their helmet. So too do automobile racers. I don't understand, though, why so many people wear baseball caps backwards. This doesn't keep the sun out of your eyes, and the gap in the cap looks foolish on your forehead. Of course, a few young knuckleheads even wear baseball caps sort of sideways. Whatever.

What you don't see much of anymore is folks who wear their baseball caps way back up on their head. These are the types who tend to scratch their heads. That seems to have mostly gone out. Oh well, it'll probably come back in style. Baseball caps have clearly become the prime fashion of the 21st century world.