New York Yankees Top Hat Logo - Yankee Doodle Dandy

To celebrate my New York Yankees loving older son's twenty-first birthday back in March of 2018, I took him to a couple of Yankees spring training games at Steinbrenner Stadium in Tampa, Florida. While we took a stroll around the ballpark, which is a wonderful ode to the New York Yankees rich and glorious past, I took this picture of him under the Yankees "Top Hat" on the back of the stadium. Afterwards he said to me, "Dad, you should make that". Well, son, if you insist. 

Some men work in oil, clay or profanity; I prefer splintering, unforgiving plywood and the thicker the better. While I'm hardly a master at anything let alone something that could be remotely construed as art, over the years I've created a number of wooden wall "art" of our favorite sports teams for our man cave. And although I'm running out of wall space, like the NHL adding another rung to the Stanley Cup, there's always a way to find more room.  

Ever the crack historian, over the month or so I spent sawing, sanding, wood filling, painting and dodging broken jig and scroll saw blades making this, I began to wonder about the history of the Yankees Top Hat. A logo almost as synonymous with one of the world's most famous sports franchises as the interlocking "NY". Interestingly, I came to find out for a team with a history more than one hundred years deep, things being relative, it's not that old.

It all started in 1946 when then Yankees owner Lee MacPhail wanted his team to be at the forefront of a huge wave of patriotic sentiment and a booming economy following World War II. Along with a number of renovations he made to a then twenty plus years old Yankee Stadium, he commissioned renowned sports artist Lon Keller to create a new "primary" logo for the Yankees. One that was, whether intentional or not, devoid of any association with New York. Was this a ploy to make the Yankees the first "America's Team" or a serendipitous marketing misstep? Incidentally, as famous as this logo is, the Yankees have used it sparingly over the years on their regular season home and away uniforms.

While Mr. Keller never claimed his artwork was original, he never disclosed his inspiration for it. As I did my research, I was surprised that it obviously stemmed from a generous amount of poetic license taken with the movie poster artwork for the 1942 film, "Yankee Doodle Dandy".  Note the angle of the star spangled hat on James Cagney's head. Eyes on your own paper, Mr. Keller. 

Further inspiration no doubt coming from a B-17 dubbed "Yankee Doodle Dandy".  Note, again, the angle of the hat on the plane. The baton or "walking stick" was a nice added touch that Mr. Keller re-purposed as a bat for his Yankees logo. Life imitated art when James Cagney christened the plane.

This Yankee Doodle Dandy flew a number of successful missions during the War, particularly during the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. Sadly, it crashed upon take off on Guadalcanal and was destroyed  killing two airmen in August of 1943. 

Not unlike a remake of a song that became a smash hit that only vaguely sounds like the original if at all, it's interesting that something that was clearly derivative become far more famous than what it was based on. 

What's next to jig saw out of plywood to hang in our man cave? Not sure but what's probably for sure is that no matter what it is, it won't be as difficult to do or whose inspiration was as historically significant. But never say never.