2005 Houston Astros Cap - Fresh Fitted Friday

This site might currently rank highly in Google searches for "Houston Astros Minor League Cap Extravaganza" but that wasn't my goal when I began posting photos of those dang caps. I definitely got lucky with those but an even more fortuitous event happened recently and this 2005 Houston Astros cap is the first installment of this haul's showcase. Enjoy!

According to Cliff Corcoran's exhaustive SB Nation writeup Houston Astros uniforms through history, the "Brick and Black" cap was in regular use from 2000 which was the Astros' first season at Minute Maid Park (then-Enron Field) through 2012.

Even though this cap isn't my size, I like having ones from this period in my possession. The "Blue Box" tags on the white sweatband first appeared in 2005 as did the "New Era Fits" and "Originators of the True Fitted" text on the satin taping.

This cap's colorway was used for many years but this particular one must either be from 2005 (or possibly 2006) considering the tags and taping and also because New Era switched to black sweatbands and underbrims in 2007.

So here's the spiel on this come-up: after I scored the Houston Astros affiliates caps I found a lot posted for sale on eBay I couldn't stay away from. The listing was for "over 40 baseball caps" and while the seller only shared a handful of photos, the headline was intriguing: "MLB and MILB Major League and Minor League Official Fitted Baseball Caps"

The description stated "they were each purchased at the stadium of the team" so I asked for more photos to help make my decision. The seller replied that "there are just too many to post pictures of them all" which would normally turn me off but I was still interested. They assured me that the caps were all official on-field caps so I bid on it and won.

Less than a week later a huge box showed up in front of me and I was like a kid in a Christmas store. Or something like that. Anyway, there were lots of hats in this box; more than 40 for sure. It's true that they were mostly 7 3/8 but there were lots of smaller sizes too which was probably because the seller just wanted to get rid of every hat in the house.

While it's too bad there are many that won't fit me, I decided that after I've posted all the smaller ones, I'm going to part ways with them. I'd rather trade for caps on my wishlist but I might be open to selling them. Someone wants them at least I'll get to share photos of the caps; everyone wins this way. I'll share my list below so reach out if interested!

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