Where or Who started the "Rally Cap" tradition in Baseball?

Answer 1

Looks like the Mets got it going....but the Mariners may have been the first to use it:

The first appearances of the Rally Cap may have been during the 1985 baseball season, when fans of the New York Mets, while in attendance at Shea Stadium, occasionally would wear their baseball caps inside-out as a makeshift talisman to generate a come-from behind victory in the late innings of a baseball game. The superstition spread from the fans to the Mets players themselves, and rose to national awareness during the 1986 World Series when the New York Mets were playing the Boston Red Sox. The Mets were losing Game Six and already down 3 games to 2 in the series; it seemed almost certain that the Red Sox were going to be the 1986 World Series Champs. In the 7th Inning of that game, television cameras captured certain members of the Mets in the dugout wearing their caps inside out. Subsequently, in the tenth inning of that game, the Mets who trailed 5 - 3 with two outs and no one on, down to their last strike on two occasions, rallied behind a string of hits, a wild pitch and a ball rolling between the legs of Boston first baseman Bill Buckner to win the game 6-5. The historical rally forced a Game 7 which they also came from behind to win, allegedly with the prominent assistance of their "Rally Caps" and become the 1986 World Series Champions.

The Rally Cap subsequently was adopted by baseball fans internationally, being used to give their team a little extra mojo and come from behind.

The belief behind the rally cap is generally to sacrifice a small amount of one's dignity in exchange for a little luck for one's team. It is widely understood that the baseball cap must be one depicting the logo of the team in order to be used as a Rally Cap.

The Rally Cap was seen as early as 1982 at The Kingdome in Seattle. Mariner closer Bill "Cuffs" Caudill would ringlead the Seattle bullpen into wearing their hats inside out during the ever-rare Mariner rally.

Answer 2

Ken Griffey Jr. was the first to really get it going back in the early 1990's with Seattle. There were variations of it before that , in Seattle, and it has changed considerably since then but Griffey was the guy and Seattle was the team.

Answer 3

that is an interesting question