Baseball Cap

NEW YORK- With the second half of the baseball season under way, let us put on our thinking caps, with the bills worn frontward, backward or off to the side, rapper style.Let us ponder why 7 out of 10 hats made in this country are baseball caps.Why everyone from football and basketball coaches to movie stars and babies wear them. And why the trend shows no sign of peaking.Baseball intellectuals will give you a metaphysical answer. But before talking about the cap, they must talk about the game.

After a bank robbery in Parkton, Baltimore County police might be looking for a Cincinnati Reds fan. The man who robbed an M&T Bank at 212 Mt. Carmel Road wore a Cincinnati Reds baseball cap, investigators said Wednesday. The robber in the Sept. 17 hold-up was described as black, in his 20's, about 5 feet, 4 inches tall, with a small build, a mustache and bushy hair with a ponytail. In addition to the red-brimmed hat, he wore black zip-up jacket, mirrored sunglasses, white gloves and jeans.

LONDON - A sartorial revolution has occurred in the land where bowler hats and cloth caps once were the national headwear for decades. Britons have fallen in love with baseball caps. The hats made famous in America are the only headgear included in the latest retail prices index released yesterday by Britain's Office for National Statistics. No top hats, no cricket caps, not even bonnets for the royal races at Ascot made the list of 650 goods and services that serve as a theoretical national shopping basket.

Keep warm or cool in the Buff Name: : Buff What it is: : A 27-inch-long, 10-inch-wide seamless tube of merino wool that can be used to heat and cool the head and neck. Available in Europe since 1992, Buff came to the U.S. in 2003 made of synthetic material. The merino wool Buff was released in August. How it works: : Despite a ridiculously simple design, it works in many shapes and incarnations. The Spanish manufacturers say it can be used 12 ways: as a cap, a bandanna, a scarf, a balaclava, a hair scrunchie and a headband, among others.

SCHOOLS across America have tried to stop students from fighting over something as innocuous as an article of clothing by instituting dress codes or requiring uniforms. Other schools try not to stifle students' self-expression.But balancing the two concerns can be difficult. Just ask the staff at Harper's Choice Middle School in Columbia.Assistant Principal Madrainne Johnson believed the head-wrap worn by an eighth-grader violated the school dress code. She sent Shermia Issacs to the principal's office.

Police logElkridge: 6300 Old Washington Blvd.: Someone pried open a door frame and removed a padlock on a storage shed at Water Works car wash Friday morning. Nothing was taken. A man was seen driving away in a late-model small truck. He was described as age 18 to 25, white and wearing tan shorts, a multicolored shirt and a baseball cap.Ellicott City: 6100 block of Meadowridge Road: A construction trailer was broken into, but nothing was taken. A lock on the door was cut.Pub Date: 9/03/96

A Woodland Beach man was assaulted Sunday and robbed of his baseball cap by two juveniles, one armed with a gun, who approached and demanded money, county police said yesterday.Stephen Blankenship, 21, of the 1700 block of Ridgely Road suffered a bump on the right side of his face but was not hospitalized.Blankenship told police he was walking home on Londontown Road near Tacoma Road shortly after 1 a.m. when two youths approached him from behind. One of them pulled out a .22-caliber handgun and ordered Blankenship to empty his pockets.

Police were seeking two men suspected of robbing a liquor store in the Westview area of Baltimore County. Two men entered the Super Liquors store in the 5600 block of Baltimore National Pike about 8 p.m. Nov. 17 and demanded money, county police said. The men went behind the checkout counter, pointed guns at clerks and were handed an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing the store, police said. One gunman is described as a male, 25 to 30 years old, about 6 feet tall, with a medium build.

Westminster police are searching for a man they say is suspected of trying to rob the Admiral Cleaners on South Center Street about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.Investigators said a man with a knife walked into the cleaners, grabbed the clerk and demanded money. During the holdup attempt, a customer drove into the parking lot and frightened the robber, who ran toward Main Street.The robber was described as white, 17 to 20 years old, about 5 feet 5 inches tall, with dark, shoulder-length hair.He was wearing a black-and-white flannel shirt, blue jeans and a baseball cap.Anyone with information about the man or the attempted holdup should call 848-4646 or 857-TIPS.

A $2,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of a man in his early 20s who robbed Provident Bank in the 10400 block of Little Patuxent Parkway on Oct. 16.About 9: 20 a.m., a man entered the bank and handed a teller a note demanding money and saying he had a gun. The teller turned over an undisclosed amount of cash to the suspect, who fled on foot. No one was injured.The man is described as black, 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall and wearing a baseball cap, blue jeans and a tan jacket.

"Good morning. Good morning," George Dumas says as he shuffles toward a cluster of tables at the back of the restaurant, near dueling window posters of a gigantic double cheeseburger and a behemoth honey mustard snack wrap. "All's quiet on the western front," Dumas announces, "except in Iraq." Actually, the noise level is pretty high inside this McDonald's on Powder Mill Road, hard by the Beltsville exit of Interstate 95. It's 8:30 a.m. and the bumblebee buzz of conversation is in full drone.

Police were seeking two men suspected of robbing a liquor store in the Westview area of Baltimore County. Two men entered the Super Liquors store in the 5600 block of Baltimore National Pike about 8 p.m. Nov. 17 and demanded money, county police said. The men went behind the checkout counter, pointed guns at clerks and were handed an undisclosed amount of cash before fleeing the store, police said. One gunman is described as a male, 25 to 30 years old, about 6 feet tall, with a medium build.

Most people from Pigtown have at least one nickname, some have two or three. There's Peanut and Little Bits; Peaches, Teeny and Dogman. Then there's William Edward Chambers. He's known as Bus, Mr. Bus, Shad, Shadbo and Sheriff, but when he slowly walks down the street whistling church hymns, many people who call out to him address him simply as the mayor. The mayor of Pigtown. Chambers knows the seven blocks he calls "my Pigtown" like he knows every note in those hymns. He knows the men on the corner, the tales, the tragedies, the two-story rowhouses, the alleyways, the clotheslines, the flowerpots, the trees and the shady front porches, from South Carey to Bush Street and from Washington Boulevard to Cleveland Street.

2 students arrested on marijuana counts Two students at North Carroll High School in Hampstead were arrested on marijuana possession charges after other students alerted staff members about the drugs, the Carroll County Sheriff's Office said yesterday. A 16-year-old Manchester boy and a 17-year-old Hampstead boy each were charged Tuesday with possession of marijuana, the sheriff's office said. One student, who was found with drug paraphernalia and marijuana, pointed officers to the second student, Maj. Thomas H. Long said.

Baltimore County police are seeking a man wanted in three Royal Farms convenience store robberies. Two of the robberies occurred in the Dundalk area. Police said the Royal Farms in the first block of Dundalk Ave. was robbed March 14, and the store in the 7700 block of German Hill Road was robbed Monday. According to authorities, in both cases, the suspect approached the counter with a small purchase. When the clerk opened the register, the suspect made threats and grabbed money from the cash drawer.

In the News Comedian George Carlin puts himself in rehab George Carlin is entering a drug rehabilitation facility "because I use too much wine and Vicodin [a painkiller]," the 67- year-old comedian said in a statement released yesterday by his publicist, Jeff Abraham. The name and location of the facility weren't disclosed. "I know it isn't easy, but I'm highly motivated, and will do whatever's needed," the statement said. Easy to track A telltale trail of wrapping paper led Columbus, Miss.

A man wearing wraparound sunglasses robbed a bank in Long Reach village yesterday morning, taking an undisclosed amount of cash from a teller, police said.About 10: 45 a.m., the robber approached a cashier at First Union Bank in the 8700 block of Cloudleap Court, police said.The robber handed the teller a note demanding money and stating that he had a gun, police said. The teller handed over cash.The robber, who never showed a weapon, was described as white, bearded and 5 feet 11. He wore a baseball cap, police said.

Police look for link in 2 recent robberies at pizza shopCounty detectives are trying to determine if there is a link between two recent robberies of a Brooklyn Park pizza parlor.Investigators say bandits who held up the Pepperoni Post late Thursday and on July 24 ordered the clerks into a walk-in freezer but did not lock the door.In Thursday's holdup, the gunman walked into the restaurant in the 5000 block of Ritchie Highway at 9:30 p.m. and told the two employees to lie on the floor.He opened the cash register and took the money before ordering the employees into the freezer.

DERBY, N.Y. -Why not the beret, the fedora or the Stetson? For that matter, why not straw boaters? In short, how on earth did the baseball cap become the world's hat, worn for work, play, fashion or just knocking around the global village? Baseball may not be an international pastime, but its main fashion accessory - the cap -is as much at home on the streets of Beijing as on the base paths of Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field, where the 70th All-Star Game is scheduled to be played Tuesday.

LONDON - A sartorial revolution has occurred in the land where bowler hats and cloth caps once were the national headwear for decades. Britons have fallen in love with baseball caps. The hats made famous in America are the only headgear included in the latest retail prices index released yesterday by Britain's Office for National Statistics. No top hats, no cricket caps, not even bonnets for the royal races at Ascot made the list of 650 goods and services that serve as a theoretical national shopping basket.