Missives of a Baseball Milquetoast

This cap is boss because it offers a glimpse into the small changes that MLB caps go through from year to year. The Yankees were the last team to hang onto the green underbrim style for their on-field caps before switching to the grey brims in 1994. Because this cap's style is so timeless, collectors such as myself will scour the earth for vintage caps with the elusive green underbrim. There is something so official-seeming about this cap; all others pale in comparison. These next two photos are from a post entitled 1983-1993 SF Giants Cap 4 (1991) and what I'd like to note here is that the "Authentic Diamond Collection" tags are exactly alike but that is where the similarities end. The "New Era" tags closely resemble each other but I have to deduce that the one on the Yankees cap is more recent because of the updated style of the size tag. These next two photos are from a previous post entitled 1983-1993 SF Giant...

Update: Apparently I wasn't very talkative when I published this post. I probably just didn't know much about what year this cap was from and just wanted to get these photos out. I did some light digging into Trenton Thunder Google image wormhole and the earliest card I could find of a player wearing the cap with a New Era flag is Morgan Burkhart from 2000 .  I guess I maybe thought it was a good idea to take a photo with that annoying flash because it would complement the Thunder emitting from the mouths of this dual-headed beast?   This satin taping is reminiscent of the style seen on caps from 1999-2001 so I think it would be fair to guess that this cap is from 2000. The sweatband tags are similar to the 1999-2001 style, and although I have seen a lot of MLB World Series caps with the maroon and blue box style size tags, I see that less frequently on minor league caps from those years. Behold the green and gold! Too bad it's just too bright for you to a...

I've lived in New York City since April of 2010 and one statement that I frequently hear from New Yorkers when the "Mid-Summer Classic" is brought up in conversation is "I don't care about the All-Star Game," and it baffles me every time. I suppose no one has much to be happy about when it's 90+ degrees in New York City but I've always thought fondly of the All-Star Game no matter what city I call home. It's a defining moment as the pennant race really intensifies at the half-way marker in the season. As for the festivities, I always enjoy watching the camaraderie among the players from rival teams within the leagues especially during the Home-Run Derby, although I do admit these events can place unnecessary strain on the players involved. Perhaps one should consider the notion that New Yorkers have a reputation for having a more traditional and serious outlook on baseball and it may be that they view the All-Star Game as a distraction from th...

The 2009 New York Yankees ball cap is a special one for me because it not only marks the inaugural year of Yankee Stadium but it also reminds me of my last baseball season in California before I made New York City my new hometown. I had never owned a Yankees cap before I purchased a 2009 World Series cap. However, while the World Series patch was accurate, the logo on the rear of the cap was not the inaugural patch, but rather the grey and white MLB batter-man logo from 2010. I didn't realize that the cap I had obtained was not a correct game-worn representation until I revisited some video footage and saw that the inaugural patch was so prominent. This probably means that New Era wanted to produce more World Series caps but ran out of inaugural patch caps and used the following season's caps, which is a Bush League maneuver if you ask me! One thing that I notice about the caps with the inaugural patch is that they fit looser than the caps with the traditional MLB embroide...

Full disclosure: I didn't attend the Jay-Z/Eminem shows at Yankee Stadium September 13 & 14, 2010 but I did get my hands on the special commemorative cap designed (hopefully, at least in part) by Hov. The cap is the standard black-on-black cap with the addition of a special additional "All Black Everything" embroidery on the rear of the cap and on the wearer's right side, three embroidered red stripes echoing the album cover art of Jay-Z's 2009 album, The Blueprint, Pt. 3. Personally, I'm a fan of Eminem and Jay-Z's music but this cap is one that I probably won't wear to a Yankees game, nor is it one that I'd wear out and about in New York City. It's a heavily sought-after limited edition release so I'm happy to have it in my collection as it is a solid reminder of my first year in New York and I'm glad that it found its way into my collection.             This week's  Fresh Fitted Friday  selection is not going on the  T...

The Albuquerque Dukes and Denver Zephyrs are two former Minor League Baseball teams that you probably don't remember unless they played in your hometown or you are a die-hard fan of the Dodgers or Brewers, respectively. Then again, that seemingly obscure nature of these clubs is what is so great about MILB teams in the first place. They provide endless entertainment to appreciative fans who might otherwise never see an MLB game in person. The Dukes and Zephyrs were two teams that I remembered because their prospects would go on to play in the MLB and I can remember my MILB cards featuring Pedro Martinez wearing a Dukes ballcap very similar to the one I have pictured here. I'll post an image of that card as a reference because it's difficult to imagine Pedro wearing anything but a Red Sox cap! However, it's no secret I'm no fan of the Red Sox or the Dodgers so this Dukes cap isn't something that I'll wear to a ballgame or anywhere for that matter, so I'...

This special edition New Era cap was first sold on July 9, 2011 at Yankee Stadium, the day Derek Jeter ticked his 3,000th career hit. I picked up two caps from the stadium and both feature the commemorative patch as an embroidery, however one is on the wearer's left side and the other is on the wearer's right side.  The ride side patch seems to be more common at the stadium but the well is drying up so if you haven't purchased a cap yet, now might be a good time to think about doing so! I did purchase some caps from Lids.com and those caps feature the felt-style patches that are common on the All-Star Game and World Series caps. The patch is glued-on the wearer's left side and incidentally, these caps are not available for purchase at Yankee Stadium. The conclusion that I have to draw from this is that the New York Yankees must have ordered the caps from New Era in advance enough to be able to sell them at the stadium the day Jeter broke the record however the fel...