Strategy February 21, 2018
MLB To Honor Shooting Victims With Special Caps
Major League Baseball will honor victims of last week's shooting in Florida by having teams wear Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hats at spring training games on Friday.
The Miami Marlins reached out to the league shortly after the shooting, requesting permission to wear special caps and T-shirts inscribed with #17douglasstrong during batting practice, USA Today reported.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said that within 48 hours, all 30 teams were confirmed to wear the school hats during pregame warm-ups for their exhibition openers. Players, managers, coaches and umpires will also have the option of wearing the hats – produced by the league’s official supplier New Era – during the games. Manfred said MLB received a "really strong sentiment of the clubs it was the appropriate thing to do immediately.''
In addition, several clubs have offered to sign the caps and auction them off to raise money for the Broward Education Foundation, according to the official victims’ fund.
Exhibition games begin Friday, including the Houston Astros playing the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach, Florida, and the St. Louis Cardinals playing the Miami Marlins in nearby Jupiter. Both games will be held in the area where 17 students and faculty were killed at the Parkland, Florida school on February 14.