MLB Has Cake, Oddly Unable to Eat it too

Major League Baseball and the New York Yankees in particular are in a bit of hot water over some official caps that feature the Yankees logo with either a crown above the logo, or stitched in red/blue bandana patterns. These caps are being criticized as feeding into gang colors and symbolism for profit.

Major League Baseball issued a statement saying, "Major League Baseball was not previously aware of the symbolism of the cap design and, of course, is very concerned about the issue."

Come on.

Admittedly I'm a white (borderline translucent) guy from the suburbs, so I don't really have much firsthand experience with gangs and street violence and all the social problems associated with that. But if even this white-bread kid from the 'burbs knew that red bandanas were for Bloods and blue bandanas were for Crips, and that black-and-gold was a Latin Kings color scheme, then wouldn't you think at least ONE person in MLB's marketing department would have figured that out, or at least HEARD of the similarities?

Add to that the fact that MLB seems to be making and marketing "fashion cap" merchandise almost specifically to see what can land in the next rap video on MTV. Frankly, for Major League Baseball to say that they had no idea what those images meant in terms of gang symbolism is either bold-faced and insulting or catastrophically stupid. They really do look like they're trying to exploit the market for rival factions, thugged-out rap, and gang symbolism on one hand, then plead ignorance by saying they were unaware of the connotations.