The MLB All-Star Game on July 15 at Target Field in Minneapolis will have a different look.
All players and coaches in this year's Midsummer Classic will wear caps based on the Minnesota Twins' 1970s batting helmets. The caps will feature the players' standard team colors and logos but will include a contrasting triangular front panel that evokes the Twins' old headwear style. The caps also will feature the All-Star Game logo on the left side and gold stars on the back.
This will mark the first time in All-Star Game history that all players on both teams have worn the same cap template.
"Returning to Minnesota [for the All-Star Game] for the first time in almost 30 years, we wanted to honor the Twins' history with new ideas and their distinctive batting helmet design from the 1970s made perfect sense," MLB vice president Tim Brosnan said in a news release.
For the first All-Star Game, played in 1933, National League players wore "National League" jerseys and "NL" caps, but American League players wore their regular uniforms and caps. All players have worn their regular jerseys and game caps since.
MLB is the only major pro sports league whose All-Stars wear their regular team uniforms.
The NBA and NHL create new All-Star Game uniforms each season (although the NBA briefly experimented with having players wear their team uniforms in the late 1990s), and the NFL does the same for the Pro Bowl.
For now, there's no indication that MLB is considering special uniforms for its own All-Star Game, but the release of the Twins-themed caps is sure to fuel speculation that such a move may not be far off.
If MLB plans to continue using the All-Star Game caps as a way of honoring the host team, next year's game may prove to be a design challenge. It is scheduled to be played at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, home to the Reds. The team's headwear history doesn't offer much on which to base a design, except perhaps the pinstriped caps of the 1990s.
