What on Earth Is the Deal With the Latest New Era Phillies Cap?

New Era released a line of State Park-themed hats as part of their MLB Remote Collection, and the Phillies cap is already drawing criticism online.

Author:
Leo Morgenstern
Sep 28, 2022 1:00 PM EDT

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Philadelphia Phillies

If you're online as often as I am, you've probably already seen tweets about the New Era State Park cap collection making the rounds. The collection features a hat for most Major League Baseball teams, with the club's logo in the center (as per usual) and an animal on the right-hand side. The animal is, presumably, one you might find living in a park within the particular state where the team is located.

The Philadelphia Phillies hat features the retro "P" logo and a buck, standing proud to the side. The cap also includes a golden New Era pin just above the buck's antlers, which takes up a surprising amount of space and, frankly, steals attention from the artwork that is meant to be the focal point of the headwear.

Upon seeing this collection, and the Phillies hat in particular, my first question was rather simple: why? What special relationship does the deer have with the city of Philadelphia, or the state of Pennsylvania?

Actually, I'll answer that one myself. None. There is no meaningful connection between these hoofed mammals and Pennsylvania. As I discovered with a quick Google search, the white-tailed deer can be found in every U.S. state "except Alaska and in only small parts of Utah, Nevada and California".

Indeed, New Era has placed this exact buck on several of the hats in the collection. The Cubs, White Sox, Tigers, and Pirates all share the same design with the Phillies. The Braves' hat features an identical animal, although it is standing in front of a different coloured background.

Let me make one thing clear: the art itself is lovely. The embroidered buck standing amongst the foliage is genuinely beautiful, and if you put that design front and center on a hat, I might consider buying it. But I just don't see the point of mashing it up with a baseball team logo. I like my sports teams and my wildlife separate, thank you very much.

The other strange thing about this collection is how many teams were not even featured. While 19 different clubs received a hat, eleven did not. The Nationals and the Blue Jays I can forgive, I suppose, because neither team is located within a state (although Ontario does have an assortment of beautiful provincial parks to choose from – many of which are home to the white-tailed deer!) But what about the Orioles, the Guardians, the Reds, the Royals, the Brewers, the Twins, the Mariners, the Cardinals, and the Rays? Last I checked, each one of those teams plays in a U.S. state.

Is New Era trying to tell me that there are no state parks located in Maryland, Ohio, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington, or Florida? I find that very hard to believe. I have not actually looked it up, because I am a baseball writer not a geographer, but I'm pretty sure at least one of those states must have a park. And I'm pretty sure they all have deer.

At the very least, the Rays should have been included. It wouldn't have taken any extra effort on New Era's part. The Marlins got their own hat in the collection, and they play in the same state!

Every other team that shares a state with another ball club had to share their hat design. The Yankees and Mets both have a fish. (Is it a trout? A salmon? I don't know much about fish.) The Dodgers, Angels, Giants, Athletics, and Padres all have the same exact bear. The Rangers and Astros both have some sort of long-horned cattle (even though there are actually more deer in Texas than any other state!) And the Cubs and White Sox both have that darned buck. But no, apparently it just wouldn't make sense for the Rays to have a state park hat with a Marlin on it. I don't know what to tell you. This hat collection has left me utterly broken.

Oh, if only I could go back to a time before I saw these hats.