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A baseball cap worn with the bill at the front, shading the eyes

Rendering of a baseball cap.

A baseball cap is a type of soft cap with a long, stiffened and curved peak and it is worn by men, women and children. The back of the cap often has a plastic, Velcro, or elastic adjustor so that it can be quickly adjusted to fit any wearer, although fitted caps are also common. Those with long hair sometimes wear their hair in a ponytail which they pull through the gap in the cap above the adjustor. The cap is normally sewn in sections, and may be topped with a matching fabric-covered button on the crown. Traditionally the peak is worn over the eyes, but the cap is sometimes worn backwards, or at other angles. When worn in front, the peak can be functional for blocking the sun. The major athletic cap manufacturers include Nike and New Era.

It is most associated with those who play baseball. However, the baseball cap is far more than just a part of baseball players' uniforms; it is arguably the most popular style of hat in the United States and many Western nations, as well as in Japan.

In many ways, the baseball cap is a symbol of the increase of the culture of sport in the late 20th century. This started, naturally, with baseball.

In 1860, the Brooklyn Excelsiors wore the ancestor of the modern, rounded-top baseball cap, and by 1900, the "Brooklyn style" cap became popular. During the 1940s, latex rubber became the stiffening material inside the hat and the modern baseball cap was born.

Baseball caps are made of all types of material and shaped in various styles for different purposes. Major league baseball players wear classic-style caps made of wool (or, more recently, polyester) with their team's simple logo and colors; the logo is usually embroidered into the fabric. Caps used by players may sometimes have sunglasses attached to the peak that can be flipped down when the player must look into the sky, but kept flipped up at other times.

Formerly, baseball caps came in standard hat sizes; since 1980, they have commonly come in a "one-size-fits-all" form, with an adjustment strap in the back. This simplifies marketing, but it reduces sun protection for bald men.

Athletes in other sports wear caps with their team's logo and colors as "sideline" caps; both types are also sold as authentic team merchandise in retail stores and are quite popular. Other caps may simply have a company's logo, such as Nike or Carhartt; these hats are often made of brushed cotton. Golfers tend to prefer the visor form of cap which does not cover the head but keeps the sun out of their eyes; women also traditionally have worn visors casually but a trend towards certain youth subcultures see an increase in visor popularity among both sexes.

Another version of the baseball cap, worn often—but not exclusively—by farmers and migrant agricultural workers, is the plastic mesh cap with foam fronts and a farm feed supply company logo or the like printed on the cap. This style of baseball cap is sometimes called a "trucker cap" because of its blue collar associations. It is also known as a "gimme cap" due to its being given away for free as a method of advertising.

Beginning in the 1980s, the baseball cap also came to be associated with film directors, especially Spike Lee, Steven Spielberg, and Michael Moore, replacing the beret in the popular image.

Wearing a baseball cap with the peak at certain directions can have significance to gang members, as well. For this reason, many public schools prohibit the wearing of baseball caps on the head in order to prevent gang violence. Many students continue to wear caps for the fashionable qualities of headwear.

The idea of wearing the cap backwards is commonly attributed to catchers in baseball, as when they began using facemasks, they had to turn the cap around to fit the mask on. Another profession associated with the wearing of a baseball cap backwards is that of photographer, notably papparazzi - for the reason that an SLR camera cannot be held to the eye whilst wearing a baseball cap with the peak forwards.

The military also uses baseball caps as part of the uniform, especially the United States Navy. Used mostly with the utility uniform and coveralls, the baseball cap usually has a command logo on the front to denote command affiliation. Also baseball caps of a particular color are worn to denote a specific function of a person or particular job. Two examples are in the United States submarine force, red baseball hats are worn by drill monitors who facilitate and critique members of the boat's crew during drills. Also in the United States Army, parachute riggers wear red baseball caps and parachute instructors wear black baseball caps as part of their uniform. In Slovenia, policemen on motorcycles wear baseball caps as a part of their uniform, when they remove the helmet.

Many armed police units around the world, notably SWAT in the United States and Scotland Yard's Specialist Firearms Command in Great Britain, often wear baseball caps to shield their eyes from the sun where a full helmet and facemask would be excessive.

• Baseball clothing and equipment
• Trucker hat

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• Types of caps and related terminology