JUPITER, Fla. — A quirky tale, complete with quotes, from today in the post-game clubhouse: St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Colby Rasmus was watching college baseball on TV in his Alabama hometown when a young, flashy infielder from Clemson caught his eye. It wasn’t how Khalil Greene played the position, it was how he looked playing the game.

Scouts saw prospect. Rasmus saw fashion statement.

Even back then, as a star for Clemson’s baseball team, Greene wore his brim pancake flat. Rasmus and his Russell County chums began doing the same thing. “Pretty soon,” Rasmus said this afternoon, “everybody on the team was doing it.” First, it was for the look. And then it became a practical matter. And now it’s making its way through the Cardinals’ clubhouse, too. Anthony Reyes may be gone, but his style remains.

Greene has a flat brim. Rasmus wears his flat. Brendan Ryan, who trotted out to center field for a bit in today’s game, also flattens his brim. Flat brims are in.

Though his story lost some of its details as he grew tired of telling it (esp. World Series 2006), Reyes began flattening his brim to avoid the curve of the brim bumping into his glasses. He insisted that he didn’t iron the bill of the cap flat, though some teammates swear that he did. Rasmus’ reason has more to do with fielding. The prospect said when darting back on a fly ball and looking over a shoulder, a curved brim closes off some of the peripheral vision. With a flat brim, “you see it all, no problems,” he said.

Utility infielder Ryan, sitting a couple lockers away, echoed the reason. When keeps the brim flat so that he has a better view of the runner if he decides to break for second or third base. It’s all about keeping as much of the view as possible, especially for players who wear their caps low on their brows. After discussing the merits of the Greene-inspired or Reyes-like flat brim, Ryan waxed ball-cap philosophical:

“Once you go flat,” he said, “you never go back.”

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