The Sports Ethicist: When is it uncouth to show support for your team?

As a sports fan, you may occasionally confront an issue so morally complex that you cannot act alone. The Sports Ethicist is here to aid in those quandaries, a vital resource in answering questions of how, when and why a fan should act. If you have an ethical dilemma of your own, e-mail tips@Cut4.com.

This week, the Sports Ethicist discusses when it's acceptable to wear your team's sports apparel to events in which they're not participating.

Fan apparel is personal property. This is an indisputable fact.

Like most personal property, it is the will of the owner -- and no one else -- that determines how and when it's used. If you own a wristwatch, and you particularly like that wristwatch, who am I to say that you can't wear it?

But to paraphrase the immortal Dr. Ian Malcolm, just because you can doesn't mean that you should. Particularly as it relates to fan apparel.

There are some people who, when presented the chance to attend a sporting event, grab the nearest thing tangentially related to that sport to bring along. For baseball, that's almost always a hat.

Let's focus on that phenomenon.

Most of the time, it's perfectly fine to wear an unrelated team hat to a game. If the Cubs are playing the Marlins at Wrigley, does it really matter if someone shows up in a Blue Jays hat? No, it doesn't. If anything, it's a nice show of support for the entire baseball community and really ought to be encouraged. Baseball fans like seeing other baseball fans. It's like Prius drivers.

If, however, someone wore a Cardinals hat to the same game, that wouldn't be cool. It'd be kind of a jerk move, to be honest.

The point of fan apparel is that it showcases your rooting interest to the world, so if you're going to a game, you need to make sure that you aren't being disrespectful by doing so.

The only reason you'd wear that Cardinals hat to Wrigley would be to show your disdain for everyone there. If you dislike a team so much that you don't even want to be mistaken for one of their fans, just don't go to their game.

I'm not saying that it's unacceptable to ever wear a rival's hat in enemy territory. On the contrary -- if the Yankees and Red Sox are playing at Fenway, Yankees fans should feel free to wear their signature caps to the ballpark. The spirit of competition and opposing fans is what makes sports so fun to watch.

Rays fans, however, would be out of line to wear their hats to that game.

Here are a couple good rules of thumb that work across all sports and all apparel:

• If you're supporting either team in attendance, wear whatever you want. That's sports.
• If the team you're supporting plays in a separate division from both teams in attendance, wear whatever you want.
• If the team you're supporting counts the home team as an enemy either by division, geography or history, leave the team stuff at home.
• If the team you're supporting counts the visiting team as an enemy, bring the cap/shirt/jersey only if you're prepared to cheer on the home team vociferously. The old "an enemy of my enemy is my friend" adage works particularly well in sports.

Any other circumstance, and you're venturing out on your own into the wilds of unregulated sports fandom. Don't be surprised if you get showered with boos from your section. If you're in doubt, don't wear any team apparel. You're a guest in someone else's stadium; why make enemies?

-- Dakota Gardner / MLB.com