The Nationals planned to wear Navy Seals hats on Tuesday to honor those who died in the tragic recent helicopter crash. After wearing the hats during pre-game warmups and bating practice, the Nats came out of the clubhouse for the game with their normal caps. So what gives? It turns out they wanted to wear the hats but MLB wouldn't let them.
According to Dan Steinberg, Major League Baseball told the Nationals that they like to keep hat tributes to league wide honors, such as the Memorial Day and July 4th American flag hats. I suppose I understand where they are coming from, continuity and all that, but the Nats were just trying to send a good mesage and I don't really see the harm in that.
Paul Lukas of Uni Watch is on MLB's side on this one, and he makes a number of good points.
Personally, I’d rather not see a team wearing military-related caps, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, every military (and civilian) death in Afghanistan (or wherever) is tragic, not just the 30 that happened in the recent helicopter crash. For another, as I have said several times, nearly 30% of MLB players are foreign-born, and I think it’s unseemly to make foreigners wear American military accessories.
Then he makes the greates point of all: In all likliehood, this was probably just to not ruffle the feathers over at New Era. And if that's the case, it would be pretty sad.