Is it just me or has there been an explosion in the number of New York Yankees baseball caps wandering around Dublin this spring?  To those wearing this vile piece of head wear, let me get this absolutely straight, you want to look like Victoria Beckham?

This is actually a look you are going for?  Or is it simply that you support large, faceless corporations disguised as sporting teams?  Has to be one of them if you are sporting a Yankees cap.  It has to be either for aesthetic value or loyalty to the Yankees.

Let me assault verbally the former for a start.  If you are wearing a Yankees cap because you think it ‘looks cool’ then I urge you, throw it away, bring it back, whatever.  Go out and shop around, there are plenty cooler caps on the market.  The Atlanta Braves cap looks pretty sharp, as does the famous old Boston Red Sox ‘B’, and Ireland has allot more in common with Boston then dirty, dangerous and unfriendly New York City.  My guess is that if you are wearing the cap for visual reasons then you really don’t care if the team plays baseball or lacrosse, in which case you have even more caps to choose from.

Be adventurous, hit the web, buy a cap very few people in Dublin will have.  Stand out from the crowd as opposed to looking like every next pimply 14 year old with a garish yellow mobile phone.  Maybe you haven’t noticed it before, but try going through a day without seeing one of those ugly black caps.  I bet you can’t.  Their proliferation is plague like. 

Whatever about visuals, the whole issue that it is the Yankees you are supporting really grates, with me anyway.  Recently Manchester United joined forces with the Yankees to promote mutual financial growth. No other reason. They have no special sporting ties, other than both teams have enjoyed recent success on the field and in the stock market.  If you support English soccer, and hate Manchester United but still wear a Yankees hat, let that sink in for a bit.  You wearing the Yankees hat actually shows some level of support for Manchester United.  Manchester City supporters, in particular, should at this very moment be on their way to purchase a Boston Red Sox hat for their next trip to Maine Road, a simple affront to the United/Yankees pact by wearing the hat of the Yankees greatest rivals.

The Yankees and Manchester United Plc really are a match made in hell.  The Yankees are Mussolini to United’s Hitler, Bill Gates to United’s Rupert Murdoch.  In actual fact United even come out better when compared to the Yankees.  At least United grow their own talent, New York simply throws dollars at young players who have been nurtured by other, cash challenged clubs in order to gain success.

So this summer, rebel against being cloned as a Yankees fan.  Rebel against wearing a cap that says ‘sure, Man U are okay, and yeah, I like the Yankees, now, where’s my bar of Giggsy soap gone?’  Rebel against having any affinity whatsoever with the Yankee hat wearing, pop has been, Victoria Beckham.