A free association exercise: Think of a Washington Nationals baseball cap. What's the next thing that pops into your head? Some people think of the old Senators, whose caps inspired the new team's logo. Some think of the first-place team they now root for, or of hometown pride. For some buyers, choosing a Nationals cap isn't simply a matter of aesthetics. It's a political decision.| It's Washington fergawdsake. Everything's a political decision. |
Then there are those steeped in the kind of partisan perspective that forced the french fry to decide whether it was with us or against us. They can't get past the "W," as in the president's trademark middle initial.| The President trademarked his middle initial? Groovy... George W™ Bush. |
That can be good: "My immediate reaction was, 'W! Perfect!,' " said Dan Mintz, 57, of Bethesda. "Not only do I get to root for Washington, but I get to root for George." Or it can be bad: "I just couldn't get myself to wear the red hat with the 'W' on it," said Jerry Stewart, 41, of Sterling, who bought a replica of the cap the Nationals wear for away games. Those hats are Democrat blue; the home caps are Republican red.| Heh. Who sez MLB doesn't have a sense of humor? |
Among the thousands of nonpartisan Nationals hats bobbing around the city, there are some whose owners intend for them to have political meaning. "It's a little bit of a thing," said Paul Strauss (D), one of the District's shadow senators in Congress. He bought one of the Nationals' alternate caps, which features "DC" instead of the W. This is not, of course, the first time that a Washington baseball team has had "W" on its caps. The practice goes back to at least 1908. When Major League Baseball officials were designing the uniforms for the new Washington franchise last winter, they tried to copy the loose, cursive "W" logo used by the city's last team, the 1971 Senators. During the design process, a baseball spokeswoman said, nobody made the connection to a certain political figure, for whom the same 23rd letter of the alphabet is a down-home nickname. "The political part of it never came up," said Kathleen Fineout, baseball's director of marketing communications.
Right, because the hats were designed for baseball...
So far, news of the political subtext still hasn't filtered up to the Nationals' front office, said David Cope, the team's vice president for sales and marketing. "Never heard of it," he said. "It's 'W' for Washington." But in the lower concourses of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, the issue is obvious to souvenir vendors. "They say, 'W? Does that stand for Bush?' " said Gary Berned, speaking of fans that visit his kiosk.
Those fans must be incredibly dense. Or just stupid. Vendor Mike Aman said baseball fans who aren't fans of the president often choose the caps with the "DC" logo, even after he tells them that the team doesn't wear that model during games. Neither the White House nor either of the national political parties appears to have tapped into the hat's symbolic value. When President Bush threw out the first pitch at the Nationals' home opener in April, he didn't even wear a cap.| Yup. I had to get my Dad a "DC" cap for Father's Day. He's a September 10, "Bush is a fascist" kinda guy... |
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