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Showing posts from 2017

1994-96 Vermont Expos hat - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!

For the last post of 2017 I'm continuing the trend of showcasing a classic Class A Short Season cap while also paying tribute to my favorite band, Phish, who got their start  in Burlington, Vermont which is where t he Vermont Expos (now Lake Monsters) played.  The Vermont Expos of the New York-Penn League wore this logo from 1994 through 2005. Because there is no New Era flag it's safe to say this cap is from 1996 at the latest. The sweatband tags here have the mid-1990's flavor. Notice the size tag flapping in the wind! Can't believe for the second week in a row I've got a cap that's over 20 years old and hasn't had its tags popped. Ringing in the new year in style! This cap isn't for sale or trade however don't hesitate to reach out if there's something you like on the  Trading Block  and you are willing to  part  with any of the hats  on my  Wish List . Happy New Year y'all and a s always, thanks for coming back ...

1994 Bellingham Mariners - Fresh Fitted Friday

Y'all know I've been going hard in the paint with the vintage Single A Short Season caps lately but what you need to know about this week's Bellingham Mariners cap is that it is over 20 years old and today I'll finally be popping the tags on this deadstock fitted.  In 1993, the Seattle Mariners cap adopted a navy blue, silver and teal colorway. The Baby M's of the Northwest League took up tealism that year as well however they wore this cap for only more season after that because they became the Bellingham Giants in 1995. I would hope you agree that the tags on an MILB fitted cap from the 1990's are a true thing of beauty. Fewer low ball teams wore fitted caps in the mid-90's than today but remember Bellingham had a higher profile based on the MLB success of former Baby M's like Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey, Jr. The rebrand of the big club in Seattle might have played a role here as well. While the Kid and Edgar wore the prev...

1984 Everett Giants

Trend alert! So for the third straight week we are looking at a Class A Short Season team however unlike the last few posts, this week the team is not from the New York-Penn League but rather its west coast counterpart. I've previously posted about hats of the Everett Giants (now AquaSox) of the Northwest League and based on all of the images I've seen, this particular version was only worn during their inaugural season in 1984. The  only images I've found of an Everett Giants player wearing this version of the cap are in the  black and white photographs used for the baseball cards from the 1984 Cramer set and I think I see some  discrepancies between these two caps. While my cap has a green underbrim it seems as though Joe Olker is seen here wearing what appears to be a grey underbrim on his cap. I'm at loss as to why a black and white photo was used for a baseball card as recently as 1984 but, alas. Side note: I have a friend who is ...

2001 Utica Blue Sox

I guess since BirdFest is over, it's finally time to  look at a cap that is not an Orioles affiliate. There is  however a connection between last week's Aberdeen IronBirds post  and the 2000 Utica Blue Sox hat that is this week's Fresh Fitted Friday selection.  We know Cal Ripken, Jr. owns the IronBirds but you might be surprised to learn the Utica Blue Sox was the team he bought and moved to Aberdeen. These sweatband tags are consistent with caps from 2000 and 2001 but this cap can't be older than 2001 since that was the team's last season in Utica.  The Carolina Blue MILB batterman here is top-not stuff. Utica doesn't host a minor league team anymore but they were lucky to have Miguel Cabrera play during the penultimate Blue Sox season in 2000. I hold Utica with the same reverence as other classic New York-Penn League locations such as Auburn, Batavia, Elmira, Vermont and Oneonta. While I've gotten my hands on a vintage c...

2013 Aberdeen IronBirds Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

Well, BirdFest sure  flew  by quickly didn't it? Are you proud of me for finally coming up with a name for the Orioles/Maryland-theme I've been running for the past month? And how about that sweet pun to lede this week's post! Nice, right? At any rate, this week's  Fresh Fitted Friday selection  is an Aberdeen IronBirds cap I got in 2013. I've been wanting to write about this one for a long time and now I finally have a reason as it's a Maryland-based team right down to the core. This is the current IronBirds logo. It was designed ahead of the 2013 season by Studio Simon which is a design firm based in Louisville, KY. Sweatband tags are more fun to look at on older caps but this one's cool because you see the "Made in U.S.A." peeking out below the center tag which is sadly far too uncommon these days. You also don't come across too many MILB batterman logos that are silver or grey so this is another neat thing about thi...

1963 Baltimore Orioles hat - Fresh Fitted Friday!!!!

As a reader of this blog you'll know that in anticipation of spending Thanksgiving in Baltimore, I've spent the last few weeks writing about Orioles-themed hats and I'm happy to say that the peak of Maryland-fest is this 1963 Orioles cap. Unless you are a hardcore O's fan, you'd never know that the Orioles ever wore a hat without a bird on it but they did wear this particular logo for just one season in 1963.  It's a known fact that any given year's baseball card set usually uses photos taken the previous season so after hunting down cards from the 1964 set to find images of this cap, I found that most of the cards featured players wearing caps with the "Lead-off Bird" instead of the "Orange B" logo.  The "Orange B" logo must not have been as much of a fan favorite as "Lead-off Bird" so I'm guessing the Orioles ended up reverting back to the older logo for most of the 1963 season b...

1989-1992 Hagerstown Suns

Welcome to the second installment of Maryland-fest, hon! Last week's Hagerstown Suns hat shone brightly but week's iteration of the cap is super-rare as it is the one  worn when the team served as Baltimore's Double-A farm in the Eastern League from 1989 to 1992. Cursive script fonts have never been the go-to choice for cap logos but this is my favorite Hagerstown Suns logo because it was so short-lived and it reminds me of my days as a youngster collecting autographs. The classic MILB hat combination: a single New Era sweatband tag and a green underbrim. Perfection.  Some might say snapbacks don't have a place on Fresh Fitted Friday but remember not many Double-A teams wore fitted caps back in the day.  According to Baseball Reference, about half of the 1988 Single-A Suns played on the Double-A team for at least part of the 1989 season so while it might not have seemed like a big promotion at the time, I imagine the fans in Hagerstown all felt like ...

Early 2000's Hagerstown Suns hat

Over the next few weeks I've got a special theme cooking to feature all Maryland-inspired caps. Now that there is no baseball for me to watch at night, I'm revisiting old seasons of  The Wire  so I'm fully immersed in Balmer, hon and that's truth. First, let's heat things up with this Hagerstown Suns cap from the early 2000's: Look at this happy little guy! Actually if logos aged like people, he'd almost be old enough to rent a car without incurring a Young Driver Surcharge . That's right: the Suns have used this exact logo since 1993. There's also a good chance I'll be spending this Thanksgiving with friends in Maryland so these next few weeks are going to be a warm up for that. As the weather starts to get chilly in most places, nothing heats you up better than the Suns, amirite?  Try the veal.   Actually, I chose to start the Maryland-fest off with this Suns cap because of my appreciation of the MLB teams that have had farms in Hage...