Every year as September 11th nears, we have a discussion about the hats the Mets wear on the field. I really don’t feel like rehashing the reasons why or why not they should be worn,we have done that for the last few years. The thing we keep hearing is that the hats have to be approved by the league and the league has a contract with New Era for the caps.Okay, I get that part.
Here is my solution. The Mets/MLB makes patches of the first responders and attach them like they do the all star game patches/stars. We saw at Citi Field that you could use a heat press machine to attach the patches to the hats for the fans who bought new hats and wanted to attach the ASG patch to it. So the day of the game, the Mets can use NYPD,DSNY,FDNY,PAPD, and any other first responders patches that they want just by adding it to an existing NEW ERA hat that is regulation. Then the METS can sell fans the patches and have them heat pressed on at the various stores/kiosks around Citi Field. The the Mets could donate the money from the profits they make from selling the patches to any of the 9/11charities and/or the widows and orphan funds from the first responders. That shouldn’t violate the contract with New Era which MLB has sited as a reason before and they can’t say you can’t have a patch on a hat because just look at the Yankees with the Jeter Patches. I am sure there is a flaw to my thinking but this might be a good way to get the ball rolling about thinking how to make this work.