A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: Dodger merchandise catalog, available at Dodger Stadium or by calling (800) 762-1770

I’m not really sure consumers are screaming for the Dodger logo slapped onto bed frames ($595), Hawaiian shirts ($68) and guitar-shaped pins ($10). But if Rupert Murdoch can recover his $311-million investment in the Dodgers by selling guitar pins, more power to him.

However, turn to Page 13 of the catalog for a truly offensive item--a red Dodger cap.

Does the phrase “Dodger blue” mean nothing to Murdoch and the heathens at Fox? Is the color in “Think Blue” week now subject to change each season? Does Tom Lasorda bleed red all of a sudden?

“It’s something major league baseball has been pushing for. It’s for fashion,” Dodger merchandise director Mike Nygren said. “We fought it for years.”

Major league officials endorse any cap that sells, and they directed teams to wear mesh caps in spring training to help spur sales of those caps. Baseball executives also noted that caps in assorted colors sell well and, Nygren said, compelled teams to follow suit. So, sacrilegious or not, the Dodger gift shop now sells team caps in burgundy, orange, purple, yellow--and red.

There is a bright spot at the end of this rainbow.

“That is probably less than one-half of 1% of our total business,” Nygren said.

(The Angels also sell citrus-colored caps and a wide variety of merchandise. Details: (888) 502-6435.)