The Wall Street Journal - Can Men Wear a Baseball Cap Without Looking Like a Frat Boy? Barstool Sports Investigates.

WSJ – LIKE APPLE PIE, Paul Rudd movies and surreal Super Bowl commercials, the classic baseball cap is a beloved American institution—and not just for kids. “I’ve realized that in America, they’ve become the modern-day cowboy hat,” said Alex Wilcox, the British co-owner of bespoke clothier and tailoring shop Lord Willy’s in New York. And like the cowboy hat, Mr. Wilcox added, baseball caps connote masculinity, and give men of any age a stylish way to hide.

They’re also legitimately fashionable now. No longer just the province…

Normally when I see these articles I instantly think of the Old Man Yelling At The Clouds meme.  It’s pretty much burned in my brain at this point.  When these legitimate old school journalists from major publications start to ask questions about the dang millennials and Gen Z’ers.  Did a deep dive on this a few years ago when it came to cargo shorts, and now they’ve got a new fashion statement in their crosshairs:

Hats.

Or as they call them, “baseball caps.”

Anyway as everyone knows Barstool has a pretty lax dress code.  It’s so lax actually that we don’t even have one.  It’s basically as long as your genital areas are covered you’re good to go.  So obviously, there are a lot of hats around.

Let’s see how fratty everyone is.

Gaz

The original hat guy.  Gaz sleeps in his hat I think.  Seen him without a hat so rarely in the past 9 years that when he doesn’t wear one it’s legitimately unsettling.  He works in it.  He goes out in it.  He day drinks in it, he night drinks in it, he eats dinner in it, he hits Vegas clubs in it.  Gaz = hat.

Does Gaz look fratty?  Well he’s in charge of a bunch of college kids.  He runs the social media accounts and has a firm grasp on what the 18-22 year olds want.  He also enjoys a nice brick chicken and a couple of espresso martinis at the bar next door when we go out after work, which is hardly a frat move.  Also I think he’s 35.  He wears the hat more like an adult man-child hiding a bald head, not a Sigma Chi kid jumping off a roof through a folding table.

Grade:  3/10 fratty.

Nate

Yeah Nate might like to spend his nights out at some of the frattiest bars in the city, but he’s nowhere near a fratty personality.  And from looks alone, his collection of frat brims that he wears facing forwards, slightly too large for his head that they often drop down over the top of his earlobes, are not even remotely something you’d find at your local frat row pig roast.  Also if he were in a frat nobody would be in it except himself because nobody would be good enough for him to get a bid.

Grade:  0/10 fratty.

Trent 

Look at that face.  Such a sweet boy.  Sweet Boy Trent.     That guy wouldn’t be caught dead in a frat.  He just wants to write his blogs and go golfing.  The simple life.  Not a baseball cap in the obvious sense, but in the Iowa sense, it’s totally a baseball cap.

Grade:  0/10 fratty.

Milmore

Milmore’s the kind of guy who, if he actually opened his mouth and tried, would get a bid anywhere he wanted.  But I don’t think he’d ever be interested in that.  If anything he’d Rush just for the experience so he could gather a bunch of info in silence then create a scathing cartoon making fun of all the jerkoffs he encountered.   That is your prototypical “white guy just trying to keep the sun out of his eyes” ball cap, right down to the bend of the brim.

Grade:  0/10 fratty.

Frankie

Frankie’s a little fratty.  I could see him being mistaken for like, the frat exchequer,  but the cool one who moves funds around to upgrade from Busch to Bud.  Haven’t ever been out with him but from the vibe I get he can turn it on and get a little wild and dump some beers on somebody’s head at some point.

Grade:  7/10 fratty.

Office Manager (?) Wayne Jetski

I would have never classified Jetski as fratty until 2 weeks ago when he dropped a fully produced white-boy rap video out of nowhere.  Then followed it up last week with another one.  So while he’s not fratty in the classic sense, like a shirtless guy in neon sunglasses flipping beer pong tables over when he loses, he definitely could be one of the sneaky quiet ones who silently sets up his speakers and amps and shit and starts going Sammy Adams all over the porch of a daytime mixer.

Grade:  7/10 fratty.

Radio Brendan

Flat brim tilted up Yankees hat.  Not what you’d find at a frat party.  Definitely what you would see on the subway ride home from Yankee Stadium starting fights with little kids in Red Sox jerseys.

Grade:  1/10 fratty.

Jeff Lowe or KenJac not sure which one

Lights Camera Barstool guy wouldn’t be caught dead in a frat when it could possibly interfere with the AV Club meeting or the midnight showing of…literally anything ever.

The Patagonia brand might bump his grade up a little bit, but the hipster glasses brings it back down to Earth.

Grade:  2/10 fratty.

PS,

He did the tweet on his shirt.

Dana

Definitely one of the frattiest guys here.  Shorts with middie socks and sneakers and a backwards cap.  Looks like one of those “do you know any brothers here?” guys looking to throw any nerds who don’t belong there out on their asses.  No Xanax punch for you.

Grade:  9/10 fratty.

Kayce

Not a frat guy because she’s a girl.

Grade:  0/10 fratty.