Championship Hats

Watching the stunning extra innings comeback of the Colorado Rockies last night, I was reminded of a phenomenon that I have always found interesting. No more than 3 minutes after Matt Holliday missed the plate with his left hand and Trevor Hoffman went searching for the closest handgun, a dude with a bag full of Colorado Rockies National League WildCard Championship Hats appeared near home plate and started handing them out like candy to the players, coaches, and homeplate umpire to commerate their first playoff berth since 1995.

When I was younger I was always fascinated with how fast these hat manufacturers were able to churn out this championship memorobilia once the championship had been decided. It was only later that someone told me that hats, t-shirts, etc... were made for both teams so that vendors would be ready to cash in on the moment regardless of the outcome of the game.

This always made me wonder, what do they do with the hats and t-shirts for the losers, the 2007 Padres Wildcard Championship t-shirts, the John Kerry celebratory headbands, or the Vassar College Liberty League Championship shot glasses? I was once told that they get shipped off to the far corners of the world to be given away to those who just wanted a shirt and didn't care (or couldn't read) what they said or that they were endorsing a loser. I would love to see a pick-up soccer game somewhere in the South Pacific where the kids are wearing all kinds of never-was t-shirts celebrating the NY Knicks 1994 World Championship and the New York Mets 2007 Easter Division Title.

In addition, I am sure that there woud definitely be a strong market for this type of clothing among hipsters and sports fans celebrating the ironic nature of this gear. Hipsters love that kind of shit.