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Hey there, hat enthusiasts and baseball aficionados! Welcome to another exciting edition of Tip of the Cap, where we embark on a fascinating journey through Minor League Baseball’s most captivating headwear and highlight cool hat designs. Today’s spotlight shines on the Carolina League’s Northern Division, and I’m thrilled to tell you that these teams all came ready to deliver. The baseball hats from these six teams rock, and picking my favorite was Tough™.
Introducing the Carolina League
The Carolina League is a Single-A league consisting of 12 teams along the coast of the Atlantic. This article will focus on the 6 teams inside the North Division, which are the Carolina Mudcats, Delmarva Shorebirds, Fayetteville Woodpeckers, Fredericksburg Nationals, Lynchburg Hillcats, and Salem Red Sox.
The league was announced in the fall of 1944 and launched in the spring of 1945. Some of the famous players to have made stops here include Darryl Strawberry, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, and Wade Boggs.
The classic baseball film Bull Durham features the Durham Bulls, which used to be in the Carolina League in 1988 at the time the movie came out. Writer/Director Ron Sheldon started his career as an infielder in the Baltimore Orioles minor league system, though never playing with the Bulls. He did, however, play for the Stockton Ports who we featured a hat from last week!
So without further ado, let’s meet this week’s remarkable collection of Baseball fashion!
Carolina Mudcats — Pescados de Carolina Copa De La Diversión 59FIFTY
Leading off our lineup is this absolute banger of a hat — the Pescados de Carolina Copa de la Diversión hat from the Carolina Mudcats. This is an exceptional kickoff with striking lines, strong iconography, bold colors, and just an all around kickass piece of headwear.
There are so many reasons why I love this hat and think it could be a great roadmap for other teams to design their own brand adjustments. First and foremost, the colors. The blue paneling frames the white front panels allowing the logo stand out. The Red brim also draws the eyes upwards to the main event, Falkor — sorry, the Mudfish.
But seriously, every aspect of this design pops off the hat. The stitching doesn’t get in the way at all for any of the color features, the baseball in the center of the eyebrows is such a fun accent, and the orange framing in the eyelets, squatchee, NewEra logo, and around the logo ensures that bright pop of color also serves to enhance the hat, rather than detract.
I loved a bunch of the Carolina Mudcats hats, but this one jumped out at me immediately.
Delmarva Shorebirds — Gallos de Delmarva Copa De La Diversión 59FIFTY
Another absolute BANGER of a hat out of the Carolina League. This is a color combination you so rarely see in merch, which makes it a standout no matter what you do. And the coral paneling isn’t even the main event! We have an ass-kicking rooster, wielding a baseball bat, looking like Alan-A-Dale but willing to wreck your day. Every color is perfectly integrated, with a white neutral space and outline to make it pop. Taking the third accent of the yellow and making it the eyelet, New Era logo, and Squatchee, is an exceptional choice.
This is what happens when designers receive the instruction to “make it pop” and decide to turn the volume up to eleven. The fusion of coral and turquoise is a combination made in heaven, which gives you an atypical, non-standard hat that breaks the mold when it comes to team rebrands.
I absolutely adore the flavor text for this team’s Copa de la Diversión rebrand:
The Rooster — a majestic animal in which the crowning at dawn of each morning symbolizes the daily triumph of light over darkness and the victory of good over evil. The Rooster symbolizes strength and determination. The vibrant colors of the Rooster is diverse, much like the Delmarva peninsula. Without the Rooster, the dynamic poultry industry on Delmarva is not able to thrive.
I’m in, I love it. This was the absolute standout from the Delmarva Shorebirds hats for me. My bank account is going to feel the pain from the hats in the Northern Division of the Carolina League for sure.
Fayetteville Woodpeckers — Maroon Eighty Deuces Theme Night 59FIFTY
Now, let’s shift our attention to the Fayetteville Woodpeckers’ Maroon Eighty Deuces look. I’m a sucker for anything maroon so I immediately gravitated towards this hat. A paratropping devil with a baseball bat? Hell yeah. While previous entries are here with bold colors and designs, this hat makes the list for being simple, subtle, and yet all around awesome.
The detail on the hat is exceptional thanks to careful black stitching to give texture, and a white outline to pop the design out from the maroon paneling. The eyelets and Squatchee are the same color to not detract in any way. All in all? A hat that will catch the eye of anyone looking, without being the focal point on your head.
This is a hat I would wear to basically any event where a hat is acceptable. It’s understated enough to blend into many ensembles, and allows me to rep Minor League Baseball without putting together a loud outfit. It’s versatile in a way many hats aren’t, and for that it jumps to the top of the Fayetteville Woodpeckers merch!
Fredericksburg Nationals — Fundadores Copa De La Diversión 59FIFTY
There’s a lot happening on this Fredericksburg Nationals hat. Fredericksburg is the childhood home of George Washington and this hat looks to celebrate that history along with the growth of the hispanic community recently. What we’re given, then is a Sugar Skull inspired George Washington which really ends up looking like a zombie founding father. I’m about it.
I love the play between green and orange where it feels 50/50 even with the green brim, the eyelets and squatchee aligning with the secondary accent rocks and by not making them white, it makes the central character the focal point. Really smart design work.
The FredNats (as fans affectionately call them) have achieved something remarkable here. A weird, off-brand hat, that I want to gift to my history-loving family members of older generations. I think they’d wear it, and it would be awesome. A+ hat.
Lynchburg Hillcats — Navy Team 59FIFTY
I swear I don’t only love rebrand hats. But I will admit, they usually catch my eye more than any others. So I’m glad that we have an official, regular team hat in the rotation for this division. I love this hat. It’s vibrant, without needing heavy contrast, the cat logo is exciting, and the overall paneling keeps the hat feeling subdued to let the logo jump off at you.
One thing I’m a huge fan of is the coloring to highlight the eye and tongue of the cat. By having the eye be an accent from a different section of the logo, and the tongue from the other, you get an exceptionally detailed hat where every aspect is equally incorporated without needing too much color or to introduce a third color.
The white outline helps to define the logo, but using it as an accent ONLY for this purpose allowed to keep it feel understated. Many hats might make the New Era Logo, squatchee, and eyelets white as well, but not doing that is for sure the correct option here on this Lynchburg Hillcats Hat.
Salem Red Sox — Navy/Red Beer Mongers Theme Night 59FIFTY
Completing our tour of the North Division is the Red Sox “Beer Mongers” rebrand. This hat is so fun. The rebrand is in honor of the craft beer scene around Salem and the mascot It feels a little like the bartender from Tapper meets a classic soda shop counter operator.
Before we look at the mascot, I want to shoutout the design of the rest of the hat. Red brim, New Era, and Squatchee, gives a great framing to the hat BUT it’s rare to see a different Eyelet design. With the light blue and dark blue paneling, having the Eyelets as an accent on the front, but disappear on the back, is a striking image that I think enhances the front panel significantly.
The beer bottle mascot, complete with baseball bat, classic kitchen hat, bowtie, and apron, gives a really strong and fun hat that allows it to feel silly. Putting the Salem “S” on the beer bottle being held out is a nice way to identify the team without needing the logo to be dead center of the panel. The white outline is nice to make sure it’s legible, and then the second black stroke around the mascot makes sure that the proper color contrast jumps out at you.
Some hats would have made the Eyelets the white outline as well, and I’m glad they didn’t hear. That would have made them too bright and become something the eye is naturally drawn to, rather than being something that adds to the color framing of the main event, the mascot. The red brim matching to the bowtie and outfit accents also tie the wearer of the hat to the character, in a subtle, but fun way.
I’m a Red Sox fan so I’m glad to know that the Minor Leagues are making great options for me to rep!
Looking Ahead to the Carolina League (South)
Next week’s journey takes us to the southern division to explore what the Carolina League’s South Division has in store for hat enthusiasts. If the incredible designs from the MiLB hats that we’ve seen from the North Division are any indication, we’re in for another treat. Some of these are among what I believe to be the best minor league baseball hats. Until next week, consider these six hats to grow your collection!
I’m genuinely curious to hear your thoughts — which of these North Division hats speaks to you the most? Are you team Pescados, embracing that bold, fun-loving design? Maybe you’re riding with the Gallos, appreciating that explosion of color and culture? Or perhaps you’re a traditionalist at heart, drawn to the subtlety of the Woodpeckers’ Eighty Deuces design? Drop a comment below and let me know!
I’m adding a couple of these to my collection for sure.
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