The Lowbrowser

Salut, salut.

It's been a while folks.

But let me apologize on the behalf of Matt and myself, as we've both been rather busy with prior commitments. As much as we love scraping the proverbial debris out of the pool filters of the internet and serving them on Waterford Crystal plates, spruced up and with a tasteful garnish of mango-pistachio chutney and saffron rice, we obviously do not have the necessary amount of time at this point to post videos and the accompanying lengthy essays very regularly.

So, in that respect, we, or at very least I, will be posting more ridiculous videos, but they will not necessarily follow the dangerous precedent of video and explanatory essay. When we have time, our commentary will come back with a vengeance, but for now, the actual stupendous content of the internet will speak for itself.

However, tonight, I have a burning question in essay form for you all.

Can anyone tell me what the deal with Pittsburg Pirates Fitted Caps is?

Lately I've seen massive amounts of people, famous and not, sporting said caps.

1.) Diddy wearing it on a promo for Making the Band Infinity.
2.) Plies wearing it in the video for "I Am The Club"

3.) Guy wearing it on Bruinwalk (UCLA thoroughfare).
4.) Guy wearing it on facebook at frat party
http://ucla.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38245764&id=2527244&ref=mf

Clearly this is enough evidence to evince a trend.

Anyway, there's generally five accepted reasons to wear a team's baseball cap:

1.) You genuinely like the team, win or lose. (See Cubs, Red Sox pre-W.S. win)
2.) You're from the area.
3.) You desperately want to be from the area. (See Dodgers, Yankees, not Twins).
4.) The team is really good. (See Yankees, Red Sox post-W.S. win)
5.) A combination of 3 and 4.

None of these is sufficient to explain Diddy and Plies sporting the cap. Diddy's from East New York, and Plies is from Florida, which eliminates no. 2. A quick perusal of the Pirates wikipedia article shores up enough information to conclude that the Pirates have eaten it mercilessly for decades, or at least not recently (World Series win in '79), and over 100 losses in 2001, which leaves out no. 4. Last time I checked, the 'Burg wasn't exactly a glamorous area, more famous for steel mills than anything else, scratch no. 3. No. 5 is gone by default, so that leaves no. 1, which I highly, highly doubt, since both Plies and Diddy have either decent or dominant teams in their local markets, the Braves and Yanks, respectively.

So what's the deal?

Then it hit me while watching "I Am The Club." Is it initials?

After all, Diddy used to be P. Diddy, and Plies is still Plies. So we might be looking a way more egocentric explanation for team adoption that we have ever considered before. They just want the big "P." The other explanation, which suits Diddy pretty well, is that he liked the colors simply fashionwise. This argument doesn't really hold up for the seemingly fashion ignan't Plies, who favors shirtlessness and idiocy over coordinated ensembles. But with the rapid expansion of New Era caps, you can get pretty much any team's logo in any color combination. White on white Dodgers? No one will see what team it is unless they grope your hat? Sure. Purple on green Mets hat? We got it (4 Cheap). So, it doesn't really make sense to buy a team's hat for the colors, when you can get your team with those colors anyway.

And what about those two guys at UCLA? I didn't really think there was much of a Pittsburg contingent at UCLA, and those same Plies/Diddy arguments hold to those guys. If anyone can straighten this out that knows more about baseball/hat dynamics than me, go ahead. Do the Pirates have some underdog mystique that I don't know about? Is that big "P" really that cool?

Is it a pee joke?