The National League Central standings will take until October to decide, but we can settle on which team has the best team baseball cap design in mid May. The Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals have been selling MLB tickets and baseball hats for decades, and today we\'re going to determine which team has the best looking, most baseball-rific design.

Pittsburgh Pirates
The Pirates are one of the oldest teams in the Major Leagues, having been around (first as the Alleghenys) since the 1880s. The standard Pittsburgh Pirates\' P, yellow lettering set against a black backdrop, has remained the same since the days of Honus Wagner. In the 1940s the P started to take on the distinct style it has nowadays, including a boxed-off loop with flared-out corners, edges and ends. The P looks old enough to be seen on an actual pirate\'s flag (the kind old Blackbeard would use, not Johnny Depp). The fact that the background is black goes along with the buccaneer theme, as well. The hat insignia (unlike the primary logo) never went all the way to include eye patches, shoulder parrots, sculls or crossbones. Some teams like to put pictures on their hats, but if you look at the history of the hat insignia of the Pittsburgh Pirates at sportslogos.net, you\'ll see that the Pirates have never once fallen into that trap.

Resisting the temptation to stereotype and cartoon-up the hat logo is a huge plus for the Pirates. This team can rely on its long and storied past for recognition of the P symbol. While other teams have to add pictures of snakes and birds to their hats, the Pirates have only used the letter P, and it has only been yellow against black. That\'s the definition of tradition. The P is simple, yet unmistakable for the flares on the loop and the contrast of the colors. One has the feeling that, long after civilization has been destroyed by a nuclear apocalypse, the Pirates\' P will serve as the battle flag for a rebel tribe of cockroaches living in a city miles beneath the scorched crust of the Earth.

St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals launched their franchise in the late 1800s, but they haven\'t been nearly as consistent with their headgear as the Pirates. Part of the problem is that the Cards, like many baseball teams out there (i.e. Braves, Red Sox, Cubs, Phillies, Nationals, Indians, Twins, and Rangers) have chosen to go with both red and blue as their team color. This being the case, the Cardinals hats have been mostly red with blue lettering, but many, many times you\'ll see them sporting blue with red lettering. The St. L initials on the Cardinals hat are actually arranged in a nice formation. Despite the fact that they have to fit three letters on their hat when other teams have to fit one or two, the Cards managed to pull it off nicely.

The design is jumbled, but it\'s as though whoever made the arrangement didn\'t shy away from this obvious dilemma. Instead, the S, T and L are arranged purposely to avoid negative space. Notice how the end of the base of the L curls in on the lower curve of the S. Notice how the S and T are so much smaller than the L. The artist wanted to put a lot into a little space, and ended up with a form reminiscent of modern art, not happenstance spaghetti. Fans who purchase St. Louis Cardinals tickets at StubHub can look on their team\'s cap insignia with pride. Is it better than the Pirates\' cap? That depends on whether you\'re a fan of modern art or history.