Notice these? The Giants have ugly spring training hats with wavy swoosh lines on the sides. (That's Tim Lincecum modeling the atrocious lid.)
It's not just the Giants. All teams seem to be wearing them this year (scroll through some other team Web sites, you'll see), part of the top-down marketing onslaught to which MLB has subjected us the past few years. I'm not quite sure when it started, but the batters' walk-up music, the alternate jerseys... keep your eyes and ears peeled and you'll find lots of little things that are obviously league-wide mandates dreamt up by the pinheads at HQ.
Where's Bill Veeck when you need him?
