[Nashvol]

One of the clues is the square visor stitching, which says this is a New Era 900 or 911 model, a step down from the on-field model 5950 (Don't be confused by "Pro Model" in the label). 5950s have a "round" visor; the visor stitching is round as well.

Years ago "5950" designated New Era's best cap and was made from 100% wool. If teams wanted knit fabric on the same style cap, New Era designated that as style "5300".

Today, 5950 is a crown style (Brooklyn mushroom crown, round pro visor), but several materials may be used: knit or polyester, for example. Recently "Diamond Era" fabric that has a pattern to it has been introduced.

Over the years the same cap styles were/are available to youth, amateur, high school, college and pro teams. The cap pictured could be any of these unless the logo can be identified. However, plain 900s and 911s were available to sporting goods team dealers for many years until about 10 years ago.

When New Era decorates caps, the front panels are sewn together then embroidered "flat"; then the cap is built. That's why the enpmbroidery does not come through the crown reinforcement on the inside.

In this instance, if stitching shows through the crown it is unlikely that New Era decorated it and an appliqué or embroidered design was sewn on it by a local sporting goods dealer.

That being said, major and minor league teams also had access to purchasing 900 (regular crown)/911 (low crown) styles since they were less expensive styles than the best styles. For spring training, for example, some clubs would buy a mesh-back cap in style 900 (actually called 991-OB "open back" with plastic snaps or 891-OB if the front panels were knit).

More recently the 5950 has been designated as the official "On-Field" cap and other models are not used on the field of play.

Any additional images might be helpful in narrowing this cap down to a specific year. I do not recall the stamping inside the sweatband being use, although it certainly could have been a requirement for exporting to another country, i. e. Canada.

Sorry for the long dissertation.

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