Foulke Won’t Fly Flag in Cap Flap

The flag flap is over for Keith Foulke.

After a personal letter from Commissioner Bud Selig, plus talks between the players’ union and baseball management as the Fourth of July approached, Foulke reluctantly packed away his Boston Red Sox cap that featured a patch of the American flag.

“I still think I should be able to wear it,” the reliever said this week at Yankee Stadium. “But I don’t want to do anything that would cost the team.”

Foulke was the only player in the majors with his own such cap. The son of a U.S. Air Force man, he wore it most of the season to show his support for the American troops in Iraq.

“It’s not like I was trying to call attention to myself,” he said. “I’m a patriotic person, and it’s just a personal thing I wanted to do.”

But the commissioner’s office saw it. Soon after, Foulke said, he began getting letters from an official, saying the cap violated baseball’s standard uniform code.