Baseball Superstition: The Rally Cap

Every sport has it’s own traditions. The “Gatorade Bath” in the NFL, the “Playoff Beard” in hockey, Indy 500 winners drinking milk, but baseball is a sport more than any other rooted in it’s past and superstitions.

In baseball you have the “Ceremonial First Pitch”, the “7th inning stretch”, not jinxing a no-hitter or perfect game. Baseball traditions even include everything from entrance music to pies in the face. However,  probably the most interesting and fun tradition of ALL might be the one which unites the players and fans. This tradition is the Rally Cap

The Rally cap is a way to urge your team-mates or team to well, rally-up from behind. Often teams will do it when they’re in need of a walk off or comeback. University of Florida freshman outfielder Christian Dicks explains….

The fact the Rally Cap allows the fans and players to interact and rally-up together makes it an interesting tradition. Paul Chandler, Florida baseball strength and conditioning coordinator agrees.

Tradition starts young. Christian Dicks says the first time he remembers seeing it was as a kid.

Dicks says he sees the rally cap a lot in College Ball, with all the games they play the teams stick with the superstition, especially if it’s fun and it works.

There isn’t just one way to wear your rally cap, the style varies from team to team and player to player. Back when Dicks played as a kid his team developed their own style of the rally cap.

So…..we know a lot of teams do it, and a lot of players join in….but when I asked Dicks whether it works or not, he said it all depends.

Looking around at other traditions in the sports world like rushing the football field, the hockey handshake, or the rugby haka ..there’s no other sport with more superstition or tradition, than baseball. And none of those traditions unite the players and fans quite like the rally cap.