Hancel Rincón waited seven years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization to make his Major League debut.
Then, in the sixth inning Friday night at Coors Field, home-plate umpire Doug Eddings decided it was time to address the important matter at hand.
Rincón’s hat was crooked.
The 24-year-old right-hander had been called up by St. Louis on Sept. 1 and entered Friday’s game against the Colorado Rockies with the Cardinals leading 4-1. It was his first appearance in the majors—and, apparently, his first encounter with Major League Baseball’s unofficial Department of Hat Alignment.
Straighten Up, Rookie
The trouble began when Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman questioned whether Rincón was allowed to wear his cap tilted to the side. Eddings acknowledged afterward that he wasn’t sure whether there was actually a rule against it.
That did not prevent him from getting involved.
Eddings stopped play and had Cardinals catcher Leo Bernal tell Rincón to straighten his cap. Rincón, who had no idea why anyone cared about the orientation of his headwear while he was trying to pitch in his major-league debut, complied.
And that might have been the end of one of baseball’s stranger fashion interventions.
It was not.
Oli Marmol Stands Up for His Rookie
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol wasn’t nearly as willing as Rincón to shrug off the incident.
And give Marmol credit for that. Rincón was a 24-year-old rookie making his major-league debut after seven years in the Cardinals organization. When an umpire interrupted that moment to police the angle of his cap despite there being no established rule requiring him to wear it straight, Marmol made sure his pitcher didn’t have to fight that battle himself.
Marmol came out to discuss the situation with Eddings and later said the umpire had indicated the rookie wasn’t going to wear his hat that way on “my field”.
Marmol had an excellent geographical rebuttal.
Last he checked, he said afterward, it was Coors Field.
Things deteriorated from there. When Marmol later returned to the mound to make a pitching change, replacement Justin Bruihl was assessed a pitch-timer violation while the manager and Eddings were still talking. The Cardinals dugout erupted, and Marmol was eventually ejected.
But by then, Marmol had made his point. Whatever anyone thought about Rincón’s fashion choices, his manager had his back on one of the biggest nights of his life.
The entire sequence really needs to be seen to be appreciated.
Watch the Hatgate sequence and Marmol’s ejection on MLB.com
Quite a Major League Debut
Unfortunately for Rincón, Hatgate wasn’t the only excitement in his debut.
Colorado scored three runs against him in the sixth, including an inside-the-park home run by Cole Carrigg, before Rincón was removed. The Rockies turned a 4-1 deficit into a 6-4 lead.
The Cardinals rescued the evening in the ninth when Iván Herrera launched a three-run homer to give St. Louis a 7-6 victory.
Rincón, meanwhile, seemed considerably less offended by the Great Hat Controversy than his manager. He said afterward that he didn’t know why he’d been told to fix it but essentially shrugged the whole thing off.
Probably wise. He had already experienced enough for one major-league debut.
For the record, Rincón’s hat was crooked. There is no established MLB rule requiring a pitcher to wear it straight.
And Coors Field still does not belong to Doug Eddings.
