1994 was a bad enough year for baseball what with all that "canceling the World Series" claptrap. Unfortunately, it was also the year that Philadelphia dipped its toe into the relatively deserted "alternative" merchandise market, featuring the awfully familiar blue day game cap featured above. The record shows that these only lasted a month because the players considered them to be bad luck. I also remember the team wearing blue-billed caps during Businessperson's Specials for a few years in the mid-90s and giving rise to a similar "unlucky" myth since they always seemed to lose in day games.
As most teams have trended towards even more hideous and useless "alternative" gear in the past decade, the Phillies have shown remarkable restraint. I have been proud to say that my team isn't willing to mess with its successful uniform aesthetics just to make another quick buck from the fans. The new design, while not terrible, is kind of a letdown--not that dressing like their quite mediocre ancestors (Phillies 1946-1949 record: 278-338) should inspire much confidence in the first place. The paranoia surrounding the blue caps also brings to mind the much-maligned interleague caps--the ones with a blue brim and a small blue star superimposed on the "P"--that have produced an 86-98 record since 1997.
My theory is that the last uniform redesign in 1993 was the correct one, and any changes made to that formula only ruin the obvious good karma earned from emulating the Phillies teams of the 1950s and 1960s, perhaps the only era in team history characterized by overall competence punctuated by brief periods of complete futility (and not the other way around, as per Phillies tradition). And before anyone points out that the maroon-clad Phils won 6 division titles, 2 pennants, and the franchise's only championship, keep in mind that particular 8-season run was bracketed by major struggles both athletic and aesthetic.
For providing a temporary scapegoat for the post-1993 hangover (before we all came to the brutal realization of how flukey that team was), I fondly recall the "cursed" blue caps.
