Happy almost July 4th everyone. On this Independence Day, most people are probably either sitting inside quarantining or at least attempting to socially distance around a pool, lake, or near an ocean.

If you are opting to spend some time outside over the holiday weekend, one thing that you’ll likely have in tow will be a hat. Which leads me right into NCSU Baseball Uniform Retrospective Part 2: Hats (and helmets). #transition

In an effort to combat the ever encroaching boredom and general lack of sports for the last 4 months, this is the 6th one of these uniform retrospectives that I’ve done. And unless someone can point out some major portion of the Men’s Basketball, Football, or Baseball uniforms that I’ve totally neglected, then this will likely be the last of this series.

If you missed the previous one of these that I put together for State Baseball, you can find Part 1 here. Part 1 was done based on the uniforms worn by the #Pack9 over the years. Naturally following on from Part 1, I’ve broken Part 2 into two sections: Baseball Hats & Batting Helmets.

Baseball Hats:

(1) Red Hat / White Block S Logo

Photo by Mat Gdowski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

(2) White Hat / Red Bill / Red Block S Logo

Photo by Lance King/Getty Images

(3) Red Hat / Red Bill / White Front Panel / Red Block S Logo

Chuck Liddy/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

(4) Black Hat / Red Bill / White Front Panel / Red Block S Logo

Ethan Hyman/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

(5) Red Hat / Red Bill / White Front Pane / Tuffy Logo*

(6) Red Hat / Tuffy Logo*

*This goes for both of the Tuffy hats shown above that State has debuted over the last couple of years, but I’m admittedly not a huge fan of the Tuffy head logo on the baseball hats. I love the Tuffy head on the football helmets, but it doesn’t really do it for me on baseball hats - not totally sure why.

Maybe it’s because baseball is an “older” sport with most teams featuring some kind of classic scripted letting logo (the Red Sox “B”, Tigers “D”, Yankees “NY”, Dodgers “LA”, etc.)? In addition to being an embarrassingly big NCSU fan, I’m also a pretty huge Red Sox fan, and a while back they threw the red socks logo on their hat for Friday night games and it was a total abomination that was done away with relatively quickly. Anyway, I’d just prefer seeing the Block S be used exclusively on the hats & helmets for whatever reason.

Most people seem to really like the Tuffy hats though, and with State pushing the Tuffy logo across the athletics department, I think they’ll probably be a permanent option for the Pack 9.

(7) Camo Hat / Red Block S Logo*

Photo by Greg Thompson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

*Other than the fact that they say WOLFPACK across the chest, I’m really am not a fan of these camo jerseys, but State has worn them pretty regularly for as long as I can remember. I feel like they make sense for military appreciation nights at Doak or something along those lines, but for whatever reason - they’ve been in the regular rotation ever since they were introduced.

(8) Gray Hat / Red Bill / Red Block S Logo

Robert Willett/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

(9) 1974 Throwbacks*

*State wore these hats with the 1974 throwback uniforms (also pictured at the link above) during the 2018 and 2019 seasons a few times. They’ve also paired them with the 1968 College World Series throwback uniforms as well IIRC. I think the hats are interesting if not particularly exciting.

However, in going back through these pictures, it has made me once again wish State would wear those 1968 CWS throwback uniforms more often. The red pinstripes and STATE across the chest cannot be beat. Total perfection.

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State has also worn the below hats a few times the last couple of seasons during their annual ALS Awareness game. I didn’t include them in the poll above, but you can find more info on the Team Chris Combs Organization behind these hats here.

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Batting Helmets:

(1) Red Helmet / White Block S Logo

Photo by Mat Gdowski/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

(2) White Helmet / Red Bill / Red Block S Logo

Travis Long/Raleigh News & Observer/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

(3) White Helmet / Red Bill / Tuffy Logo

(4) Black Helmet / Red Bill / White Front Panel / Red Block S Logo

My Take:

For the baseball hats, my preference is to see State use the following combination on a go-forward basis: (1) Red Hat / White Block S Logo, (2) White Hat / Red Bill / Red Block S Logo, and (3) Gray Hat / Red Bill / Red Block S Logo. I’m a big fan of the gray jersey/hat looks that State has worn throughout the years and would like to see more of the gray uniforms as an alternate look.

For the batting helmets, I’d go with (1) Red Helmet / White Block S Logo and (2) White Helmet / Red Bill / Red Block S Logo.

All pretty simple in design/look, but I feel like that works for baseball.

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Stay safe everyone, wear a mask, happy 4th of July, and Go Pack.