Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Another week of free agency frenzy has gone by which on Wednesday had me hopefully optimistic due to the 13-year deal brokered between the San Francisco Giants and Carlos Correa, yet the very next day I found myself once again perturbed by the New York Yankees as they signed Carlos Rodón to a six year deal. I think the Giants took a huge risk with Correa that could ultimately pay off if they get six to eight good seasons of output from him who in all likelihood could retire from the game before reaching the end of this contract. As for  Rodón, I have my concerns of him being injury-prone so all I can say is that I wish him good health and success throughout his time in New York. By the way, the diplomacy shown in the last sentence of the previous paragraph even caught me by surprise as I read it out loud but since today is National Underdog Day, I'll take that as my motivation to not drive the bitter bus right now. Also, Giants fans have a lot for which we should be grateful. Even

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday finds me once again barely able to contain my composure as my San Francisco Giants have lost their two-horse race with the New York Yankees in the Aaron Judge Sweepstakes. Since last week's post, Jacob DeGrom departed from the New York Mets to join the Texas Rangers while Justin Verlander signed with the Mets to help fill that void. This now leaves Carlos  Rodón as the lone pitching ace without a place to call home in 2023 and at this point, I'm rather disinterested in where he ends up as long as it's not the Los Angeles Dodgers. Luckily, this recent article from MLB Trade Rumors  linking  Rodón with the Texas Rangers has me feeling confident that my rivals in LA are not likely to sign him to a deal.  My voodoo powers were ineffective last week but that didn't stop me from selecting the cap worn by the Rangers' High-A affiliates in Hickory, NC for this week's post! Ever since 2019, the Hickory Crawdads have been known as the

This week's Fresh Fitted Friday finds me barely able to contain my composure as my  San Francisco Giants are in a two-horse race with the New York Yankees in the Aaron Judge Sweepstakes. For anyone who needs a reminder, the Giants haven't made a splash this big in the free agent realm since signing Barry Bonds to a 7 year deal on December 8, 1992. When Bonds signed that deal I became even more steadfast in preferring the Giants over the Oakland Athletics whose popularity across the Bay extended all the way to the east coast where I was just a lad firmly obsessed with baseball and learning everything I could about the game. The player who had my full attention though was Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox. I was lucky to be living in the Bay Area when Thomas had stints on the A's especially during his brief "return to greatness" season in 2006. In retrospect, I was probably more focused on catching Bonds' at-bats as he marched toward breaking the career hom

I have been a baseball fan for about 90% of my life and it wasn't until Cleveland's baseball team became the Guardians ahead of the 2022 season that I experienced a Major League team changing their name — with the lone exception being when the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals upon their move to U.S. capital in 2005. While the Nationals rebranding had more to do with their arrival in a new locale, their NFL counterparts became the Washington Commanders this season as they finally dropped the offensive slur that they used as their name from 1937–2020, at which point they were temporarily known as the Washington Football Team. At this current time the only professional sports organization that is actually respectful in its usage of a name referring to Native Americans is the Spokane Indians and that is due the ongoing relationship between the team and  Spokane Tribe of Indians that  has was  forged in 2006 when both parties collaborated on the team's rebranding e

After tending to other responsibilities the past few weeks, I'm happy to come back to this blog with the League Championship Series in full-swing. I'm sad the Mets were eliminated as I was hoping for my first Subway Series as a New Yorker but at least the Yankees are in there competing, especially against a team as divisive as the Houston Astros. I had some fun "underdog" hats lined-up in the event of a Seattle-Cleveland series but unlike the NLDS upsets that occurred last week to determine who would compete in the NLCS, the two AL teams with the best records are facing off to determine the winner of their pennant. I'll save my NL underdog hat for next week but I'm going according to plan this time around as today's date is October 21 which means it's Back to the Future Day  and thus the perfect opportunity to highlight the "All-Star Futures" hat worn during the premier showcase event played in conjunction with the 2019 All-Star Game that was

I was too busy last week to dedicate the time needed to post but tomorrow evening is International Observe the Moon Night and as someone who has been fascinated with outer space ever since watching Star Wars as a young child in the 1980s, I just had to pull out this "Moonshot" hat from The Clink Room which was designed by LeRoid David. Counting my  Bad News Bees hat from my post back in May  and this one I now have both of Clinker LeRoid's creations for The Clink Room!  The dark navy crown and Vegas gold brim are a stunning combination however I think might have preferred a grey undervisor to match the moon's true color. Let's be real though: if this design ever gets reproduced, I'll buy it no matter what the colors are!   The Clink Kong embroidery on caps from The Clink Room are a beautiful and unique touch. The design on this cap is bonkers and the backstory on this hat goes so deep I had no choice but to pick it up, even though there's a slight Dodgers