Why are all the Major League Baseball teams wearing black and green camouflage hats today?
Well, that’s because MLB and New Era are in the midst of their annual Armed Forces Day ballcap celebration; here in 2024, the caps will be worn across the league over the May 17-18-19 weekend. This is the fifth season in which Armed Forces Day weekend has been marked with a special cap design.
This year’s caps, crowns, buttons, and visors are black. Each team’s typical cap logo is on the front but re-coloured army green and black. The interior of each logo has a green camouflage pattern with six stars (three on either side) beside it.
On the right side of the cap is a patch incorporating two lightning bolt bats crossed with a home plate-shaped shield with an American flag-style pattern. These are all placed in a camouflage-filled circle. The MLB logo on the back of the cap is coloured black/yellow/green, and the undervisor is green; the interior sweatbands are black.
SHOP: 2024 MLB Armed Forces Day caps and more are available now
The Toronto Blue Jays, the lone team based outside the United States, will naturally get their own version of this design, with Canadian symbols replacing the American ones. Four maple leaves replace the six stars, and the flag on the side patch becomes Canadian.
The six stars on the 29 American-team ballcaps recognize the six branches of the United States Armed Forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The Blue Jays cap has four maple leaves even though there are only three branches of the Canadian Armed Forces: the Canadian Army, Royal Canadian Navy, and Royal Canadian Air Force.
Here’s a look at all thirty MLB Armed Forces Day ballcaps for 2024, split up by American and National League for ease of viewing:
SHOP: 2024 MLB Armed Forces Day caps and more are available now
The Cleveland Guardians announced earlier this week that they would only wear their Armed Forces Day cap for the game played on Saturday, May 18. Instead, the Guardians will debut their new City Connect uniform on Friday night and then wear it again on Sunday.
Major League Baseball first wore league-wide special caps for Memorial Day in 2009; they were U.S.-flag themed at first before switching to a camouflage style design. Ten years later, in 2019, this event was moved one weekend earlier to mark Armed Forces Day weekend. The league has celebrated Memorial Day (2009-18) and Armed Forces Day (2019, 2021-24) each season since 2009, with the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. Memorial Day is now marked with a special poppy patch on the jerseys of all teams playing on the Monday.
