Ben Affleck and Hollywood’s baseball cap wars

In April, rabid Red Sox fan Ben Affleck appeared on New Heights, the Kelce brothers’ podcast, and reignited one of the most viral earworms in baseball cyberspace: the irresistible yarn that Affleck refused to wear a Yankees cap in Gone Girl. (1)

The 2014 film, in which a man is accused of killing his missing wife, is directed by David Fincher, who adapted it from a Gillian Flynn novel. Affleck plays the scrutinised husband, Nick Dunne, who, in one scene, dons a dark baseball cap as disguise while trying to navigate a New York airport undetected.

According to lore, Fincher approached Affleck during filming with a Yankees cap – akin to teasing a bull with a reg rag. Affleck rejected the idea out of hand, saying it would ‘ruin his life.’ (2) An impasse then ensued as the star and director butted heads.

“I said, ‘David, I love you. I would do anything for you. But I will not wear a Yankees hat,” Affleck recalled in a 2014 New York Times interview. “‘I just can’t. I can’t wear it because it’s going to become a thing, David. I will never hear the end of it. I can’t do it.’ And I couldn’t put it on my head. It was an uprising. It was a coup. I rioted. It was a one-man riot against the Yankees.” (3)

After a ‘lot of shuttle diplomacy, so much back and forth,’ Affleck compromised and wore a Mets hat in the controversial scene. Meanwhile, the fact that he went fully nude elsewhere in the film is often overlooked – baseball fandom trumping mere dignity in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. (3) 

Alas, the whole Yankees cap debacle is likely apocryphal – or at least, vastly overblown. In fact, various signs point to it being something of an inside joke. In a certain light, Affleck’s portrayal to the Times reads like a hyperbolic troll job. It is, after all, the New York Times. The Tampa Bay Times may have gotten a straighter answer.

Moreover, in his director’s commentary on the Gone Girl DVD, Fincher deadpans that Affleck was ‘unprofessional,’ and recalled a ‘four-day’ filming shutdown over the Yankees hat. (4) Most likely, that was a satirical attempt to portray Affleck, his good friend, as a spoiled prima donna. Fincher is known for his dry sense of humour, and those familiar with his work consider the Yankees cap a frivolous prank. Furthermore, Carrie Coon, Affleck’s Gone Girl co-star, recalls no such filming shutdown. (5)

Yes, Fincher probably did approach Affleck with a Yankees cap. And yes, Affleck probably did reject it, in favour of the Mets alternative. But those involved embraced the hyperbolic story and trolled gullible aggregators who fished for an explosive angle. They leaned into the exaggerated narrative, which took on a life of its own, and they relish every opportunity to prolong the mythology.

Regardless, Affleck was not the first marquee actor to reject the cap of a rival baseball team as character dress. More than a decade earlier, the great Jack Nicholson, a Yankees fan, refused to wear a Red Sox cap in The Departed, an Oscar-winning film set in Boston. “Jack can do whatever Jack wants,” said Mark Wahlberg, another prominent Red Sox fan who co-starred in the film. “He’s Jack, baby.” (6) 

Thankfully, cooler heads – and hats – prevailed with other noted baseball fan actors. In 1991, passionate Yankees fan Billy Crystal wore a Mets cap in City Slickers, as the Mets were regular contributors to his Comic Relief charity. (7) Then, in 2005, fellow Yankee rooter Jimmy Fallon played Ben Wrightman, a maniacal Red Sox diehard, in Fever Pitch. Neither had an issue wearing rival insignia.

Ultimately, though, rejecting the Yankees cap may have shifted something in Affleck’s astrology. Gone Girl was released in September 2014, a month after Affleck turned 42. Remarkably, between 1998 and 2014, the Red Sox never won a game on Affleck’s birthday – 15 August. That changed in 2015, when Boston beat Seattle, 22-10, on Affleck’s big day. There was nary a Yankee cap in sight, I’m sure. David Fincher be damned.

Sources

1. New Heights. [Online] April 30, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78tX95gOHAw.

2. Egan, James. 1000 Facts About Actors, Vol. 1. 2016.

3. Buckley, Cara. New York Times. [Online] October 2014, 2. https://archive.nytimes.com/artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/10/02/ben-affleck-david-fincher-spat/.

4. Rafferty, Scott. Rolling Stone. [Online] July 10, 2015. https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/ben-affleck-shut-down-gone-girl-production-over-a-yankees-cap-231373/.

5. Davids, Brian. The Hollywood Reporter. [Online] November 16, 2021. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/carrie-coon-on-ghostbusters-afterlife-and-fact-checking-gone-girl-1235048524/.

6. Polowy, Kevin. Yahoo. [Online] October 6, 2021. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/the-departed-mark-wahlberg-jack-nicholson-boston-red-sox-hat-150140308.html.

7. Fandom. [Online] https://newyorkmets.fandom.com/wiki/City_Slickers.