Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

Just last week, I attended my final New York Yankees games of the season but unfortunately had to see them lose to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday and then again to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday for Paul Skenes' final start of 2024. Had I known that the Pirates would pull Skenes after just two innings, my decision to venture to the Bronx on that rainy afternoon might have played out differently but  despite the loss  I am grateful to the Yankees for putting forth their best efforts as well as their fans who by dumping their tickets for cheap allowed me to see the potential Rookie of the Year strike out Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Jazz Chisolm Jr. This "load management" that is de rigueur makes sense to a point but teams not competing because their last games "don't count" is disenchanting to fan. I experienced similar feelings of dismay  the following day when Blake Snell opted to skip his final start for my San Francisco Giants because the game "h

For this week's post, I decided to shift from beer to wine  with this  V iñeros de Tri-City  cap that the Tri-City Dust Devils wear for their "Copa de la Diversión" games. As a former Napa Valley resident, I have a special appreciation for the enological nod in the design and a Copa design seems like a fun way to honor National Hispanic Heritage Month which is annually observed from September 15 to October 15 in the United States. I am also taking a break from trying in a cap of a playoff-bound team and i n fact  going in the opposite direction because if the Detroit Tigers somehow squeak into a Wild Card spot that leaves the Los Angeles Angels—who are the Dust Devils parent club—as the MLB team with the longest playoff drought as they have not appeared in the postseason since being swept by the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 American League Division Series.  I love how the winegrower here resembles a brunet Elroy Jetson and who I like to refer to as Brunellroy as a portm

As we enter the penultimate weekend of the 2024 Major League Baseball season, the Milwaukee Brewers are the only team that has clinched its division which means the excitement will only ramp up as the other division and wild card results unfold. And as a beer lover, I appreciate the opportune timing of the start of  Oktoberfest just after the  Brewers clinching   so I selected their cap from Hat Club's "Cereal Pack" for this week's post. Each hat in the "Cereal Pack" release offers a nod to an iconic cereal box design which in this case is Frosted Mini-Wheats. Of course, wheat is an integral part of beer which makes it no surprise why this version of the Brewers logo was chosen here.   Compared to the younger generation of cap collectors out there I am admittedly a curmudgeon as the seemingly haphazard patches on these exclusive "drops" don't get me too chuffed however they break up the monotony as well as make it easier to locate caps if you h

I had to take last week off because the reentry hangover after the Labor Day holiday weekend and a planned trip to Cape Cod the following weekend ate away at any hope of writing. Nevertheless, I am now back recharged and looking forward to a New York Yankees series win over the Boston Red Sox who are visiting Yankee Stadium for the last time this season. I was in attendance for Juan Soto's walkoff hit in Game 1 which bodes well. But instead of writing about a cap related to either of those teams, I am highlighting this Catalina Flying Fish cap that I picked up at theclinkroom.com   in a recent "Fresh Colorway" drop of this now classic logo that made its debut in a preorder in 2020. I unfortunately slept on that release and have regretted it ever since until now!  Something about the uncomplicated nature of this design has resonated with me and I am sure the same is true for countless other fans of The Clink Room as it has been remixed a few times since that first release.

My posts ahead of Labor Day Weekend from the past two years have both been  Ebbets Field Flannels  retros of caps worn by the  Denver Bears  during different eras of their existence. My reason for highlighting Denver is as a tribute to Phish's annual run of shows which have taken place there over the holiday weekend yearly since 2011, with the exception of 2020 as their entire summer tour had to be canceled due to the pandemic. Onto happier times now and even though I am not there to witness it, I can thankfully follow along from home via webcast and can confirm that Phish is poised to bring the goods over this four-night run. Because I have now written about all my Denver Bears caps, I need to pivot to Denver-adjacent caps with an Albuquerque Isotopes in a Colorado Rockies colorway. When the partnership between the Rockies and Albuquerque began in 2015, I was finally able to stop mentally associating the Pacific Coast League city with the Los Angeles Dodgers who were their parent

Building on last week's Peninsula Pilots post was no easy task as that hat has been high on my  Wish List  for a long while. So it only makes sense for me to now bring attention to an equally important cap in my collection which is a 1989-92 Tidewater Tides retro which was a recent in-store only release from  @djmach716  at the flagship New Era shop in Buffalo, NY. Once again my friend  @yellowsub73  came through in the clutch by no doubt pushing for this cap to get the retro treatment as well as going to the trouble of purchasing it on my behalf but shipping it to me here in New York City. The flagship is the first ever store to retro this design from over thirty years ago and the hype around it will no doubt spawn more releases. After so many years of searching for a vintage version of a cap featuring this logo that is so dear to me, I was just about ready to give up when I caught wind of this release. The green undervisor here is historically accurate, for which I am thankful. I