Jim Siergey

I own a baseball cap that I have had for nearly sixty years. I gasped when I realized how long it’s been. It is my All-Star cap from my Little League days. We received special caps for being on the team. The cap part is sort of a barely grayish-white color. Time has not done that to it, as it has to my hair; grayish-white is its original color.

The button crowning the top is royal blue. Emanating from the button are six pairs of royal blue double-lines that cascade to the bottom of the cap’s pleated edges. Between each set of double lines are little air holes, outlined with blue stitching.   Above the royal blue brim and nestled atop a set of double lines in the front of the cap is a blue star, its color a wee bit lighter shade of blue. The entire cap is wool.

My All-Star game memory is not one for the scrapbook. I struck out on three pitches and played right-center field, as right field itself was near a nest of yellow jackets that never stopped buzzing and swarming about.

But I loved wearing the cap. It was a sign of distinction. It went everywhere with me that summer. I mentioned in my description that it was wool because one day it landed in a mud puddle and my mother used the washing machine and drier to clean it.

It never fit again…but the moose in our den likes it.