Baseball Cap Fascination

America's Favorite Accessory

(CBS)  Baseball caps are as old as the game itself. The very first ones were made of straw but time and technology have brought them a long way since then.

As The Early Show contributor Laurie Hibberd points out, even calling it a baseball cap seems outdated because its appeal travels far beyond the world of baseball.

Young or old, at work or at play, all athletes sport them. Rock and rap stars jam in them. Heck, even the president wears a baseball cap. Backwards, forwards or sideways, it keeps the sun off you face, can hide an embarrassing haircut or a lack of hair all together and it's never out of style.

Jim Moore of GQ Magazine says,” What I'm constantly amazed about is the staying power of these caps. I mean they just don't seem to go away."

Even this season's Dolce and Gabbana show had caps, a nod to the mesh trucker hats of the 70s.

Moore says, “You certainly don't expect to see them on a high fashion runway because you're always thinking this is going to be the most cutting edged stuff.”

So what’s behind the staying power of America's favorite accessory? We headed to the Baseball Hall Of Fame to see where it all began, and had to handle the subject with kid gloves, literally.

Tom Shieber of the Baseball Hall of Fame showed a cap dating from 1860. He described it as “what was known as a jockey style cap,” he says, “it looks a lot like a modern baseball cap.”

It hasn't changed much at all. In fact, the baseball cap has only had a few moderations over the years.

Shieber explains, "A lot of the baseball caps you get today have a little plastic in the back – it’s one size fits all, as long as you constrict the back there.”

And the one size-fits-all caps seem universally reviled. Shieber says, “I think it’s because that is not what you do in the major leagues. They still have fitted caps, sized caps in the major leagues and you want to be like the pros.”

Hibberd says she does not mind the adjustable back. Her favorites are her vintage MTV cap, circa 1990, and a cap she got the first time she went to the Sundance Film Festival. She says they just make her feel cool when she wears either of them. Sometimes it’s not the cap itself, but what’s on it that is important.

Moore says, “The logo on the cap is important because it’s making the statement about what you stand for. I mean, you know, what team I'm on or what I believe in or what company I worked for."

One person on the street sporting a Yankees cap said, ”I actually bought it after 9/11. I wanted something that said New York so that’s why I got it. I'm not actually a great Yankee fan. Its more about New York."

So what is it about baseball caps that we all just love so much?

Shieber says, “I think it has a lot to do with baseball. And that we as a country, we really love the game that is ours.”

Moore thinks they provide a record of people's lives.

"there's a lot of guys out there - and girls - that keep their hats and collect them and they really represent different periods of their lives and things that they've gone through,” he says.