Outside The Confines: More dumb hats!

New Era has been making a name for themselves this season with a truly epic lineup of some of the stupidest hats we’ve ever seen in our lives. There were the “Local Market” edition caps with confusing clip art offerings, which were so intensely mocked, New Era pulled them from their site. There were these multi-logo ones. There was the “have you tried every single font?” version. And now, testing the waters of mediocrity once more, the most recent offering they’ve released are these... upside-down logo caps?

Not only are these unoriginal, they’re a baffling choice for a design. They’re just... upside-down logos. They’re visually confusing, and just truly odd. I am certainly not a graphic designer, and I know I’d be hard-pressed to come up with several new inspiring design ideas every year, but simply turning a logo upside down feels, to put it mildly, a little lazy.

Are you going to run out to get one of these?

Now let’s shift our focus to some quality reading material for your Friday enjoyment.

• One of the more interesting stories of the week was White Sox early-season phenom Yermin Mercedes seeming to announce via Instagram that he was planning to retire from baseball. Since then, he has been back in uniform, but this is definitely an interesting developing story to follow.

• Tim Keown tries to assess the impact of Tony La Russa with the White Sox.
• Paul Hoynes shares that Cleveland’s baseball club has picked their new name, but they aren’t ready to share it just yet.
• Over at Bless You Boys I looked at the lasting impact of the Detroit Tigers trading Cameron Maybin THREE times.
• What does the NL Cy Young race look like now that Jacob deGrom is injured? Nick Selbe investigates.
• Sydney Bergman and Daniel R. Epstein love Shohei Ohtani so much they needed to make up a new stat to encompass his greatness.
• In fact, the staff of Baseball Prospectus are so all-in on Ohtani they’re having an Ohtani Week, including this piece by Steven Goldman, “Welcome to America, Shohei Ohtani.”
• Ben Pickman also looks at Ohtani’s new merch deal.
• If you’re planning to watch the Olympics this year, Tess Taruskin has everything you need to know ahead of the games.
• Has the ban on “sticky stuff” actually made any difference? Ben Lindbergh looks at what has and hasn’t changed since the dramatic ban.
• Sara Sanchez has her latest for FanGraphs as she assesses the incredible season Trea Turner has put together this year.
• Bradford Doolittle reflects on the worst trades of all time.
• Mark Feinsand speaks to front office execs who are bracing themselves for a madhouse ahead of the upcoming trade deadline.
• 22 years later, Chad Jennings reassesses the “Turn Ahead the Clock” promo of 1999. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• The Tigers do a “Simba” cam to have parents lift their kids Lion King-style, but it looks like even the players wanted to get involved.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.