Colorado Rockies Purple Alternate

The Colorado Rockies purple caps are one of the few On-Field caps that is regularly sold but is generally not worn on the field, excluding Throwbacks and such. These all purple caps originated dating back to 2003, a full decade after the team formed out of the plateau that is Denver, and they have been worn sparingly ever since. The disappearance of this cap is more or less unknown, and purple is somewhat being phased out in the great state of Colorado but not like what the Diamondbacks did to remove their flair, the Rockies are doing it in a more subtle fashion.

Shortly after they were introduced they began to phase them out throughout the years, and eventually they became an Opening Day event in which the caps were worn and thus auctioned off to charities after the series, and this would run through the 2009 season. When the 2010 season rolled out, the Rockies and their high expectations decided to shelve these caps indefinitely, and with little outcry from the fanbase, but opening day 2011 they were reintroduced but were only worn in the Rockies 7-6 loss in extra innings to their division rivals of Arizona.

The Colorado Rockies are currently the only team in Major League Baseball that still have the colour purple as one of their main or secondary tones, and as an alternate the Rockies have an all purple cap which seemingly aren't put into use that often anymore. The last time that the team wore these caps frequently was all of the way back in 2007, but being that the caps are restricted to Opening Day leaves no room for query about when or if they will be put into circulation again.

The purple base cap makes this logo pop so well, it's hard to believe that they wouldn't wear it more often. The cap's logo consists of two separate parts, one of which is layered and the other part that is of raised embroidery, the silver outline and the black interior. The black interior is very subtle and is raised a little too much for the part that is being described, it reminds me of the custom caps that are of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the raised embroidery just seems too high for its own good. The silver thread used for the stitching makes up for this however, it really emphasizes the logo through the context of the available colours.

The Colorado Rockies purple alternate cap consists of the traditional 59Fifty Crown and brim, but the brim is attached to the cap slightly different than one would traditionally see on caps, what differentiates this brim from other caps is that it is attached upside down. Generally the caps have the brim so that the material on the top of the brim stretches over the edge and tucks underneath which is then covered by the underbrim, but this cap takes the two colours of purple and black and uses the black underbrim as the overlapping material but is still used as the under side which is customary of the Cool Base On-Field Fitteds.

The batterman logo is accented by purple and black threading, each of which represent the team colours accurately, but the use of purple thread is more or less washed away in the overall base purple of the cap. The black portion on the rear side of the batterman is a nice accent but should have been used for the former, and the rear side should have used a silver threading which would help the batterman logo stand out better and would be able to express all three of the Rockies' colours in one small area.

The cap as a base isn't all that hard to find, but since it is worn so sparingly on the field, New Era has began producing these as a majority in China and American versions are becoming harder to find by the day, I was able to pick this up at LIDS when I heard the news of their Made in USA retirement.