You’ll either love or hate this year’s Cubs spring training hat

If you keep even casual tabs on New Era and the seemingly never-ending string of releases they pump out, you’re aware they’re not all home runs. This week, we got our first look at the 2022 spring training caps for all 30 teams (heck of a decision to drop them with the lockout still in place, right) – including the new look for the Chicago Cubs.

As you can see above, the block ‘C’ that typically adorns Cubs hats has been cast aside in lieu of a logo that we haven’t seen in decades – and is very reminiscent of the South Bend Cubs’ branding.

It’s a lot of blue – which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I always like the splash of white that we often see in Cubs hats. When used correctly (and, again, it definitely isn’t always done well), it can draw your eye to parts of the design you might otherwise miss.

But based on what we see with the other 29 teams, you can see that each design features the base color of the cap and just one additional color (in the Cubs’ case, that means the royal base and red logo). You can take a look at all the looks on the New Era website – and draw your own conclusions.

The most puzzling choice, at least to me personally, is the trucker-style design. I get the mesh back on a retail hat – something you pick up at Sports World Chicago or Wrigleyville Sports on game day – but for an on-field cap, it’s a very out-there decision.

Of course, the worst part of all this is we still can’t see our favorite big leaguers actually wear these hats because, you know, there’s no baseball. The league and MLBPA met again at length on Wednesday – but there’s still no clear light at the end of the tunnel.

Let us know what you think of this year’s caps in the comments below – who knows, maybe at some point we’ll get to see them on the heads of Cubs players. At least let’s hope so.