He’s achieved it once more, people. Eric Adams—the avuncular, tomfoolery-addicted mayor of New York Metropolis who was lately indicted on expenses of bribery, marketing campaign finance, and conspiracy—dropped one other banger on Monday. No, it wasn’t a newly shaped brotherhood with a Turkish dignitary, nor was it a memorable one-liner on par with “Let your haters be your waiters once you sit down on the desk of success.” As an alternative, Adams’s newest and biggest contribution to the world was a sartorial alternative: On the metropolis’s Columbus Day Parade on Monday, the (alleged) Brooklyn resident stepped out in a navy baseball hat that was embroidered with each the New York Mets and the New York Yankees’ logos, bisected by an X. (It was maybe that letter—a little bit of streetwear parlance denoting a collab—that drove the ultimate stake.)
Expectedly, individuals have been enraged by this. The Mets and the Yankees will not be simply baseball groups on reverse sides of a crosstown rivalry; they’re additionally instant signifiers of who you’re as a New Yorker. By many metrics, the Mets have lengthy been “the individuals’s crew,” symbolic of the outer-borough working class and different notions of historic underdogism. The Yankees, then again, are capitalism personified, synonymous with excellence and glitzy high-class society and no matter different propaganda George Steinbrenner led us to consider through the franchise’s heyday. To brazenly help each within the house of 1 hat is sacrilegious to many New Yorkers, whereas others would argue that it’s no huge deal. He’s the mayor, in any case, and with the Mets and Yankees each nonetheless alive on this yr’s playoffs, it is smart that Adams would need to present somewhat like to each golf equipment. He famously loves golf equipment!
What we now have right here is an argument on the middle of fashion and sports activities. Who higher to hash this out than us, GQ’s personal type author Eileen Cartter and sports activities author Matthew Roberson, to resolve, as soon as and for all, whether or not Mayor Eric Adams’s hat is definitely good or downright despicable? We’ve devised a sequence of questions that may hopefully lead us to a conclusion.
Neglect the sports activities implications for a second. Is the hat objectively cool?
Eileen Cartter: Sure. Individuals love sacrilege. It’s additionally so New York—a Mets-Yankees mashup hat looks like a bootleg merchandise you could possibly purchase on Canal Avenue or in a Midtown memento store. Would possibly as nicely additionally throw a yellow taxi and a Huge Apple and the Statue of Liberty on there. Plus, our colleague Samuel Hine, GQ’s trend author and a loyal Mets fan, identified that the hat is in honor of the particular 2000 World Collection, when the Yankees beat the Mets 4-1. In order that additionally makes it fashionable in a Y2K manner, which provides cool factors. (That World Collection is the second-funniest NYC-meets-New-Millennium phenomenon behind Bronx native Ice Spice being born on January 1, 2000.)
Matthew Roberson: I don’t know, dude. When you’re proper, this hat is extraordinarily New Yawk—any zaza emporium price its weight in pre-rolls has not less than one man behind the counter at all times sporting this precise hat—it feels very pressured. This hat reads like somebody who simply moved to the town attempting to point out everybody that they not solely reside in New York, however they actually get it now. Which, hey, that’s type of Eric Adams’s complete deal, relying on how a lot you consider he’s really spending time within the 5 boroughs. However you realize what’s objectively cooler than a Mets x Yankees collab hat? A Mets hat! Or a Yankees hat! Depart it to the politician to either side this one.
Would you put on this hat?
EC: Like, certain, however perhaps solely on days once I’m feeling courageous. Consider all of the conversations it will spark! I’d should be prepared for them. I’d should be in the correct headspace. Bummer it’s already offered out. I’d verify Grailed.
MR: I completely by no means would put on this hat. I’m a self-respecting sports activities fan. What I’ll do is checklist a bunch of men off the dome who performed for each groups, and would theoretically be allowed to put on this hat: David Cone. Doc Gooden. Curtis Granderson. Joely Rodriguez. Brandon Drury.
Is it cheesy for the mayor to help each groups?
EC: If something, he’s kinda the one one who ought to? Plus, Eric Adams does appear to be the sort to maintain his all bases coated (pun clearly meant), in a How you can Win Associates and Affect Individuals type of manner.
