TIGHT LINES
RALLYING FOR THE VICTORY
with Andrew Spencer
I've gotten into something of a health regimen lately, a regimen that includes jogging out the Surfside

bike path a few times a week. The bike path is one of the few places left on Nantucket where all sorts of people can meet and mingle, and all the while status and position in life don't matter.

Fashion, however, still reigns supreme.

For example, I'm sort of the anti-fashion statement, much like my beloved father. I don't have jogging shorts, nor do I wear anything with spandex in it. I'm the one out there in Bermuda shorts and black socks - again, I'm my father's son - trying with everything I've got to run the three-or-so miles without losing consciousness.

Recently, during one of my morning jaunts, I saw a woman who was, if nothing else, a kindred spirit. She was a biker, punctuating her golden years with a leisurely bike ride along Surfside Road. And, I might add, she was following the letter of the law by wearing her bike helmet. But, at the risk of throwing stones from my own glass house, she was guilty as sin in the eyes of the fashion police:

She was wearing her bike helmet backwards.

Bring your caps - Andrew will be hosting a rally for more creative photographs next week.

Now, I'm certainly the last one to critique another's fashion statements. For all I know, it was an entirely intentional move on her part. And, when I really thought about it, it's entirely possible she was paying homage to that venerable American institution of baseball by wearing a riff on the equallyvenerable rally cap.

For those uninitiated amongst us, the rally cap is more or less what its name suggests -a cap used to spur a come-from-behind rally. In its most basic sense, a rally cap is a baseball cap worn backwards. Depending on the size of the deficit, hats may be worn inside-out and backwards, with athletic tape used to modify the shape of the cap. According to www.rallycap.com, the unusual method of donning the lid was popularized during the 1986 World Series. It was during the seventh inning of Game 6, and the New York Mets were losing. If the team to whom they were losing (I'm trying to keep from saying it, Red Sox Nation, but it was you guys) had won that game, the Curse of the Bambino would have died 18 years earlier. But the Mets players donned their rally caps, and their fans did likewise. You all know the rest. The Mets went on to come back and win the game, then win the World Series. And it was due entirely to those rally caps, regardless of what people say about the hole in Buckner's glove.

And now before anybody gets any bright ideas, please don't shoot the messenger.

Despite what you might be thinking, rally caps have their own set of etiquette rules. According to another rally cap Web site, rally caps "must be worn as a team, or somebody just looks corny."

Nothing like the herd mentality to turn a lot of corny-looking individuals into a "team," no?

And, according to a third Web site devoted to all things rally cap - rally caps are like cockroaches the way they proliferate - "The rally cap superstition is no longer isolated to baseball. It can even be seen outside of sports altogether when someone wants to change their bad luck."

Kind of like when the fish aren't biting.

And coming out of nowhere, it's Segue on the backstretch, hat turned around backwards, pulling ahead and eeking out the photo finish at the tape.

Every fisherman needs a cap - especially those of us who, in our older age, are finding fewer hairs to brush. And with that, it's official: I've become my father.

But I digress. Even more important than avoiding sunburns is the magical workings of the rally cap. You can have all the gimmicks and gizmos and you can do everything just right, but sometimes the fish just have your number. And on those days, you've got to pull out all the stops. Enter the rally cap.

Friends and neighbors, I'm no marine biologist, so I can't tell you the finer points about fish behavior. But I can tell you from first-hand experience that the rally cap comes in handy when nothing else is working.

And the beauty of these things is that it can be any hat. My personal favorite is my University of Texas cap, but you can easily substitute one from your favorite tackle shop or tackle maker. I've even seen one brave soul sporting a "Hottie Patrol" hat backwards. Long story short, it's not about the content; it's all in the execution.

So next time you're out there and you've tried everything in your tackle box and nothing's doing, turn that cap around backwards. After all, it worked for the Mets.

Tight lines.

Andrew Spencer is a freelance writer living on Nantucket and an avid fisherman. His first novel "Veneer" is available online and at island bookstores.

I