Sad to say, but the way the Giants have been playing lately, it’s time to break out the rally caps BIG TIME. They’re a powerful tool in a fan’s arsenal, but can also be a much maligned practice scoffed at by non-believers.

A rally cap’s function is to help the team tie the game and hopefully pull ahead for the win. The power of a good rally cap effort can change the course of a game, with multiple runs, homers, exceptional plays, and errors on the part of the opposing team. When used strategically, they can result in spectacular walk-off wins.

Personally, I’m a strong proponent of the practice as long as you can get enough people in your section to cooperate. Five caps seem to be the magic number, although miracles have happened with just 2 people — and we always look at each other, point to our hats, and in unison say ‘RALLY CAPS!’ When people make fun of the practice and don’t participate, well, you can never tell how that affects things on the field. But it’s usually not good.

Rally Cap with pins – ouch!

A rally cap is pretty simple – it’s a regular baseball hat turned inside out, or folded in half and placed precariously on the head, or for those who like the subtle approach, just turned around so the bill is facing the back or side, rapper style. Those don’t help the team as much as inside-out hats, but 5 points to the fans who make the effort. And lots of points to the fan with a hat full of pins – turning one of those inside out and then back on your head can be downright painful. But as they say – no pain, no gain. It’s all for the good of the team.

Rally Fedora

I’ve seen different hats used as rally caps. At the recent orange fedora giveaway day, people got very creative. Some fedoras were turned completely inside out, and some were perched on the head along with a baseball cap. A double-headed approach.

Mike Krukow is the Rally Cap King, and I’ve learned most of the rules from him. If going strictly by the book, rally caps should only be used starting in the 7th inning, except in rare instances when your team is so far behind in the 6th that a miracle is all that will save the game.

Home Rally Cap selfie

Other important rules:
* When you put your rally cap on, turn to others in your section, point to it, and yell loudly, ‘IT’S RALLY CAP TIME!!’ It’s OK to use a little guilt on them.
* When something good happens, point to your hat and say, ‘Rally cap!’*
* It’s OK, and even advisable, to wear a rally cap when watching the game at home.
* Turn your hat back to right-side-out after your team is at bat. You don’t want to give the other team an advantage.

But here’s the problem: Some folks just won’t participate no matter how much other fans in the section plead and cajole. I’ve asked many a neighbor to turn their caps inside out, or at least turn them around, but have gotten looks and comments from people who say, ‘I don’t want to mess up my hair.’ Or , ‘I’ll look silly.’

Seriously? Let’s get something straight here – you’re at a ball game. You’ve been outside for hours. Your head has either been sweating or freezing, depending on the weather. And your hair’s been squished under a form-fitting hat. It already  looks bad! You have hat-head. And still . . . you don’t want to turn your cap around because you’ll look funny or your hair will get messed up? You don’t think you look kind of silly with 4 layers of clothing on and a blanket wrapped around you? REALLY?

I’m pleading with you non-rally-cap people. When the time is right, do it for the team. Please. Believe me, your Gamer Babe date will understand. This is one of those instances when it’s not about you, it’s about your team. They need your help. They need the magic of your rally cap.

NOTE: 7/30/14 – watching the game from home, rally cap on, I take credit for the Giants pulling ahead in the bottom of the 7th. It was probably my rally cap that contributed to that passed ball. You’re welcome!

UPDATE 9/10/14 – Giants vs. D-Backs. I’m taking some credit for the run production in the bottom of the 7th. My friend Janie and I had our rally caps on and got a few others in the section to join in. BINGO – the Giants scored some runs. Just sayin’ . . .  

I’m not sure that I ever really take a break from baseball, but during this year’s All Star Break, I seem to have had more breathing room to get caught up on things (and obviously, I let this blog slide . . .  sorry). The Home Run Derby was fairly boring. That’s probably one of those things you have to be there to truly enjoy. The game itself was pretty ordinary although I enjoyed the accolades and celebration of Jeter’s career.  He’s a class act. The other class act that was surprisingly left out was Tony Gwynn. To me, those 2 guys are part of the generation of old fashioned, nice guy players who represented the game well both on and off the field. I like to think that many of the current Giants players have similar qualities and will be thought of that way as their careers wane.

So having the week off, and with the Giants out of town for another week, I’ve played catch-up but still have baseball around me so I’m never far from the game I love. When I do my laundry, I use a baseball knob to pull open the doors to the laundry room. I found these at Target many years ago, and wish I’d bought more. But if I had, they’d be on every drawer and cabinet in my house. A little over-kill maybe? As you can see, it looks like a real baseball so it makes it more fun to do my laundry. Which often includes a number of Giants shirts if the team is in town.

I also can’t help but walk by my bobble head hutch that sits between the living and dining room. Actually, my downstairs is fairly small and this display case is right in the middle of it. I’ll occasionally rearrange the statues, depending on that’s going on with the team, and I try to move the players who have left to the back of the display. My friend Julia rearranges her diorama at the beginning and then throughout the course of every season to make sure she’s providing the right mojo to the team. She’s a gamer!

It’s fun to walk by and look at mine. I also have various photos of favorite members of the Giants family, like Mays holding his bat and Kruk and Kuip sharing a joke. People have given me items to add to this display — a Cain bobble head from the Great Race given by cousins Lance and Danielle, and a Giants beer stein from my mother’s friend Rosalie. I’ll take them all!

As I leave the house, I walk by my hat rack that holds most, but not all, of my Giants hats. I’m not sure why I have so many . . . maybe because each season or set of seasons is special? I retired my Bonds-era hat with the many ‘home run – I was there!’ pins next to the larger ‘Road to History – 756′ pin. The 2010 and 2012 hats are in a special place, and this year’s hat will probably be retired at the end of the season too. I got it at Spring Training and it has the new monthly bobble head pins on it in addition to some really special Spring Training pins and my favorite – my Gamer Babe pin. That one will have life on future hats, that’s for sure. I enjoy reliving each season by reviewing the pins — each hat tells a story.

So even with the break, I’m never far from baseball and the team. It’s always a long Non-Baseball season every year, so a lengthy All Star break gets me prepared for that.

I’d love to hear what some of you did with your All Star break — did you miss baseball, or was it a welcome relief? Share your ideas — it may help the rest of us get through those lonely non-baseball nights.

Next up: Rally Caps!

The Giants are now officially in second place, only by a half game today, but it’s still NOT first place. How long will this last? It’s hard to tell, but my guess it’s going to be a roller coaster season from here on out.

And that’s not a bad thing.

Think about it — good, competitive baseball to watch for the rest of the season; still plenty of time for great plays and tight pitching match-ups; a season that will have enough stress in it to keep us all watching and talking about it to the end. That sounds pretty fun to me!

I usually don’t get too excited about how the team is doing until well after the All Star Break in mid-July. There is so much that can happen towards the end of the season that it’s not worth the stress. Look at the record books and see how many teams have come from behind to overtake the assumed division or league winners, just because of that late push in September. Baseball’s like that — one team surges ahead and the competing team has a slump. It’s all about peaking at the right time, having unsung heroes who come through at the end of the season, and some luck. The right time to peak is mid September, going into October. We’re a long way from there.

Of course, when your team has a great run and is in first place by 9 games early in the season, it deserves notice. But it’s also a little unnerving, because there’s plenty of baseball left and a lot can happen. Other teams can have a winning streak, injuries can cripple a team’s line-up, and unexpected / unwanted slumps may run through a team. For the Giants, a recent illness went through the clubhouse with a flurry and affected many of the players. It’s hard to tell if that’s what the current slump is all about, but hopefully the team will rebound soon.

But still, nothing to get too worried about. Yet.

I have a friend who works at my local coffee shop. His nickname is Shadow, and he’s a Blue Jays fan. Most years, our conversation turns fairly quickly to how he wants the A’s to stop winning, or how great it is that the Yankees lost last night. So if his team isn’t doing well, he’s glad to see that Toronto’s competitors aren’t doing well either.

In the first weeks after Opening Day in years past, Shadow’s expressed concern that one of ‘his’ pitchers isn’t doing well, or how the team was beaten by the hated Yankees. He doesn’t know all the players, and with new ones added every year it’s a little hard to keep up — I’ve had that problem in years past myself — but he does know where they stand. This year, he’s been very happy until the last couple of days, when the Jays have started a downward slide and are flirting with second place.

Shadow started following baseball in college, when he had a crush on Tom from Canada.  Tom was a Blue Jays fan. So it was natural that Shadow became a Jays fan too. But he never played baseball, and doesn’t watch it enough to know the finer points of the game, so looking at the standings is the main way he tracks his team. It’s easier to get worried about a team’s chances when that’s all you’ve got.

But still, it’s not the All Star break yet so neither of us are worried. In second place, we know that our teams have room to move, hopefully in an upwards direction. Like a good race horse, we both want them to come down the home stretch and sprint to the finish at least a nose ahead of the competition. When a team has been in first, especially for an extended period of time, they know they can win. They’ve done it before. Just like in life, learning to handle adversity and bounce back when needed makes you stronger in the end.

So being in second place may not be that much of a problem after all. There’s a goal to shoot for, and a lot of exciting games left to make it happen. The teams are developing character and practicing resiliency, and hopefully keeping those pesky injuries to a minimum.

A problem with being in second place? Maybe not. But ask me again in mid August how I’m feeling.