Dodgers News: Prince Harry’s temporary allegiance to Dodgers creates uproar north of the border
LOS ANGELES — Prince Harry has done it again. Not the memoir, not the tiresome Netflix thing, not the tell-all vibes. This time he committed the gravest of royal offenses: he wore the wrong baseball hat.
While in Toronto for events honoring World War I veterans, the Duke of Sussex had to address what he called “the blue-hatted elephant in the room.” That is an actual quote. He was talking about when he showed up at Dodger Stadium for the World Series and wore a Los Angeles Dodgers cap while the Dodgers were playing the Toronto Blue Jays. Yes, he was there with his wife Meghan Markle, who grew up right here in LA, attending Immaculate Heart High School in Los Feliz. And she’s was wearing her Dodger blue, too. But, Harry. My dude. Canada that still has your dad on the money. And, quite understandably, here came the backlash, swift and without pity.
It was, according to Canadian social media, a betrayal worthy of a parliamentary debate.
Harry, to his credit, handled it like a man who has already chosen California, sunshine, and Montecito over the royal rota. He told the Toronto crowd he was “truly sorry for wearing a Dodgers cap,” which drew applause, because Canadians remain the nicest people on earth even when deeply offended by headwear. Then he doubled down on the joke, calling the whole thing “Hat Gate” and explaining, “When you’re missing a lot of hair on top, and you’re sitting under floodlights, you’ll take any hat that’s available.”
Fair point. The crown isn’t exactly SPF 50.
But let’s be honest: this was never just about a hat. This was about allegiance. About whether a prince of the United Kingdom, grandson of a queen, son of a king, would publicly side with… his wife’s hometown team. And the answer, delightfully, was yes. Of course he did. This is the same guy who moved across the ocean, gave up palace drama, and embraced traffic on the 101. You think he was going to pick a colonial remnant over the team down the road?
Harry even tried to soften it for the Toronto audience, saying he’d been invited to the game by the Dodgers’ owner and felt “under duress” to wear the hat, a very funny way for a prince to say peer pressure still works. He added that he figured Canadians, “known for their civility,” would understand. Which they probably did, after the initial “excuse me?” moment.
It didn’t help that he and Meghan were sitting in the front row, in front of actual Los Angeles royalty. Dodgers legend Sandy Koufax and Lakers icon Magic Johnson were right behind them. Imagine spending your life being introduced as His Royal Highness and then realizing you just blocked Sandy Koufax’s view. That’s bold.
To bring it all back to Canada, Harry reminded the crowd that Toronto is where Meghan lived while filming “Suits,” and that some people even thought she was Canadian. “This city has always meant a great deal to me. You provided me a wife,” he said, which is honestly a great line and probably the most diplomatically efficient way to end “Hat Gate.” If a city hands you your future duchess, you show up, say thank you, and put on the Blue Jays cap they hand you from two feet away, which is exactly what he did.
He even said he was rooting for the Jays in the final three games of the series, though he admitted that might make going back to L.A. “more difficult.” That is the tightrope he walks now: America on one side, the Commonwealth on the other, baseball in the middle. If the British monarchy wanted him to be neutral on sports, they should have kept him out of California.
So what did we learn? That Canadians will forgive a prince for minor baseball treason. That Harry will reach for humor before defensiveness. That Meghan’s LA roots are undefeated. And that in the ongoing battle between empire and vibes, the vibes keep winning.
Call it what it is: a tempest in a teapot. A royal hat malfunction. On the list of things that the Canadians are annoyed with right now, it’s pretty low. As for us Dodger fans, we only take it as a matter of taste. Dodger Blue is just a better shade than that Blue Jays hat anyway. All is forgiven. We got your back. Now, please, don’t do another season of that Netflix thing. It’s all we ask in return.
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