Indeed, online the hat was called awkward, a travesty, dumb. Justin Brannan, a City Council member and a Mets fan, offered that the hat should be ruled illegal, posting on X that, “I’m all for Carl Jung and the duality of man, but this is egregious.”
The mayor might have seen this cap controversy coming. Since the Mets got their start in 1962, the city has been a house divided (a return to form in a city that had previously boasted three major league teams). And somehow, time and again, politicians have managed to make an unforced error out of that crucial question: Mets or Yankees?
When asked which team he preferred, then-mayor Michael Bloomberg dodged with, “I grew up in Boston.” Despite his being born in Manhattan, Mr. Adams’s predecessor, Bill de Blasio, was roundly jeered for his allegiance to the Red Sox. That, along with his proclivity for eating pizza with a fork, were pointed to by detractors as evidence that the former mayor wasn’t a real New Yorker.
The Brooklyn-born Rudy Giuliani at least took sides, but the result was much the same. “When they play each other, I root for the Yankees,” Mr. Giuliani told ESPN in 1999, adding that Mets fans booed him “all the time.” He tried to appease them, with little success, by showing face at Mets games in blue and orange gear.
For his part, Mr. Adams has never been on the firmest footing with his identity as a New Yorker. During his campaign, he was plagued by accusations that he lived in New Jersey, rather than the five boroughs. While the city’s politicians normally hail New York City, singularly, as the greatest place on earth, Mr. Adams has a habit of likening it to other more minor capitals. New York City, according to Mr. Adams is the Athens, Istanbul, Kyiv, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Islamabad, Zagreb, Lima, Mexico City and Dublin of America.
Offensive to fans though it may be, Mr. Adams’s NY/NY cap solidifies his status as the city’s highest order hat guy. Throughout his tenure, Mr. Adams has used his hats — “Mayor Adams,” “NYC Mayor” and others — as a messaging medium. The message normally being: I’m in charge.