Later today, we’ll finally learn the results of the BBWAA vote for the 2025 Baseball Hall of Fame class. We’ve compared the statistics and debated the legacies. Now we get to discuss…fashion?
Every inductee to the Baseball Hall of Famers is given a plaque that ends up in the physical Cooperstown building, engraved with a picture of the player. The players wear hats in the engraving, as they did while playing. Most have logos, traditionally the team with which the player spent most or all of their career, or with which they had the greatest impact.
So how is the logo or lack of a logo chosen? Let’s dive in.
It can be a controversial topic every once in a while, never more than around the induction of Wade Boggs. As lore has it, Boggs was allegedly offered money from the Tampa Bay Rays to pick a Rays cap for his Hall of Fame plaque, but the Hall of Fame had to step in and say no. After all, Boggs spent 11 of his 18 seasons with the Red Sox, winning all five of his batting titles there and collecting 2,098 of his career 3,010 hits there. He spent the last two seasons of his major-league career with the then-Devil Rays, putting up slightly below-average offense.
Boggs wears a Red Sox cap in his Hall of Fame plaque. The Rays rumor was fake.
Who decides which hat Baseball Hall of Famers get on their plaques? Here’s how Cooperstown makes the call
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