The colorful impact of Spike Lee's red Yankees hat request 30 years ago

NEW YORK — Thirty years ago director Spike Lee, one of the most recognizable New York sports fans in the world, and New Era, the company behind the on-the-field headwear of Major League Baseball for almost a century, were on to something big. They just didn’t know it at the time.The legend is as follows: in 1996, Lee was attending the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Atlanta Braves. The Yankees opened the series with two straight losses at home in The Bronx and were headed to Atlanta for the next three games. Lee was traveling to those games in Atlanta and knew he’d be wearing a black Yankees Starter jacket with “Yankees” emblazoned in red on the front. He then made a coordination call both literally and figuratively that would change the baseball hat game forever.Advertisement